


Running Wild

by Sciatic_Nerd



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Multi, Shapeshifters - Freeform, Werewolves, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-12-14 02:50:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11773956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sciatic_Nerd/pseuds/Sciatic_Nerd
Summary: As soon as Regis felt Luna's small hand slip out of his he swore he would do everything in his power to get them back, to save them from becoming pawns in Nifleheim's games.Because one glaive forgot to do their paperwork, Nyx Ulric was left guarding the King instead of someone who would leave things well enough alone. And really, what kind of hero would he be if he left kids in the hands of those Niff bastards?For want of a nail a kingdom was lost, or saved, depends who you ask.





	1. Calling for Reinforcements

**Author's Note:**

> Came across another prompt on dreamwidth, I know, I have to stop, but this one asked what would happen if Ravus and Luna had been successfully rescued from Tenebrae? So that got rolled in with a few other plot bunnies, and here we are.

Regis clung to Noctis as he sat in the car, Ravus’ screams still echoing in his ears.

“Clarus, get us out of here.”

He took a couple of deep breaths, still holding tightly onto his son before Noctis pulled away, “Dad, we have to rescue Luna and Ravus, we can’t leave them behind.”

“I know, Noct, I know,” he choked out, “we’ll get them out of there, I promise.”

“Then we need to turn back!”

“No Noct, first we need to get help, Clarus how far are we from the rendezvous point?”

“Not long, I know you wanted to let the Crownsguard handle security issues but I had Cor mobilise the glaive instead, we may need the extra fire power.”

Regis breathed deeply and closed his eyes thinking, “good. Have you made a decision regarding who should captain the glaive?”

“Not yet, I wanted to run it by you first. I’m leaning towards Drautos and Lazarus.”

“What about Ulric?”

“I know you like him Regis, but he’s too young,” Clarus shook his head, “and he doesn’t have the experience.”

“Very well then, wake me once we reach out destination and send Drautos and Lazarus to me immediately.”

“Of course, your majesty.”

*****************************

“Oi, Nyx!”

The glaive in question groaned, but answered, “what the fuck do you want, Acnae?”

“I need you to do me a favour.”

“Spit it out, I wanna go back to sleep.”

“Can you take my guard shift?”

“The fuck?”

“Look, Drautos is saying he got a memo that he might be shipped out with a team and he wants me on it, but I need to get some shit done before I’m ready to go, if you catch my drift.”

“If this is about trying to get into Cor Leonis’ pants I have bad news for you, honey.”

“What? No, I need to do my will, and a few other things. Paperwork.”

“You still have something worth giving to someone?”

“I think you mean do I still have someone to give it to. My little brother, I’m not anywhere near as good as you on the battlefield, but I figure if I come back home in a bag the least those bastards at the top can do is to give my brother a pay out, it might get him through college.”

Nyx turned towards the woman, fully awake and frowning, “he should be getting a free education.”

“That doesn’t apply to people with refugee status.”

“Why didn’t you get him citizenship? You do know you can get automatic citizenship for immediate family once you’re part of the military, right?”

“Legit?”

“Yeah, it’s something King Regis slipped in there while the Council wasn’t looking. Family members of those who died in service to the Crown are also eligible.”

She paused, “Nyx, I really need you to take this shift for me.”

The younger man sighed heavily and flopped over onto his back, “fine, I’ll do it, what am I guarding and when?”

“The king, and you start when he arrives, last estimate said he was an hour away.”

Nyx frowned, “if we’re only here to escort the King and the Prince back to Lucis, why are there so many of us here?”

Acnae just shrugged, “why’re you asking me? I’m just a grunt. Nyx you got any good luck charms? Something that’ll get me through alright?”

Nyx rolled his eyes, “if you want shit like that go talk to Crowe, she’s the witch.”

“Don’t fuck around with me, everyone knows that it doesn’t get any better than the blessings of the Wolves of Galahd.”

The man tensed, “that’s just a story, no-one actually believes it.”

“Bullshit. There’s a reason everyone is splitting into two camps around here you know.”

He turned to face the other glaive directly, “the Lucians would never give me command, and you know it.”

Acnea snorted, “I may be an average fighter, but I’m a damn sight older than you brat, I remember when King Regis first came to Galahd, he was the first Caelum in generations that stuck around and actually tried to learn our ways. Then when we needed help he tried, he wasn’t strong enough to help us and we weren’t strong enough to help ourselves, but he tried. And I know a lot of the younger brats like to forget that, but for us old folks it means something. He knows what your name means to us Nyx. If you asked, he would give it to you.”

****************************

Nyx tried desperately to ignore what Acnae had said earlier, so it was lucky that he had agreed to take over her shift and was now running around the safe house trying to anticipate when the king would arrive and what he needed for when he got here.

A little over an hour later a black car rolled into the driveway and Nyx hurried out to open the door, bowing as the man he called king stepped out, his sleeping son perched on his hip. He looked exhausted.

“Clarus, I need you to guard Noctis. Ulric, you’re with me.”

For a moment it seemed like the Shield was going to argue, but the King simply overrode him, “I’ll be fine, and Ulric will be one step behind me the whole time.”

Nyx turned to the older man, “I will, sir, I promise.”

“Fine.”

“Very well then,” Regis set his shoulders and marched to the door, saying to one of the glaives stationed there, “get me Drautos and Lazarus. I’ll need them in the study in an hour. And get this message to the Council.”

He handed over the piece of paper before retreating to the study.

Once they reached the study, Regis waved his hand and cleared the desk, “I need a map, preferably a world one.”

Nyx shrugged, but got it out anyway.

“Thank you, Ulric, that will be all” he said, allowing Nyx to melt unobtrusively back into the shadows of the room.

Regis poured over the map, fingers tapping on the desk as he desperately tried to find a workable plan to get the children out of there. He had promised Sylva, he had promised.

*****************************

“Oh, good, you’re here,” Sylva raised an eyebrow as Regis ignored her, taking a long slow draught of his wine instead. It was good wine.

“Now hold still, no escaping this time!”

“Ack! Sylva! What the blazes do you think you’re doing!”

“No matter what you believe, your son isn’t the only one who needs my magic touch!” the woman exclaimed, diving for him. Regis would have warped away but then the wine would have been wasted, which would have been a pity, because it was good wine. So he was forced to sit and suffer through the Oracle’s ministrations as she tried healing him for whatever nonexistent disease she thought he had this time.

After another few long minutes she finally let him go, “see, now that wasn’t so bad was it?”

“Do I have to answer that?”

She narrowed her eyes, “how much have you had to drink?”

“In any case, you should be saving your energy for Noctis, I’ll be fine.”

“At this stage Noctis needs physical therapy and to build up his strength, and someone to make sure he doesn’t damage that nerve again. He’ll be fine. And you didn’t answer my question!”

Regis frowned thoughtfully, “a few glasses?”

“You’re an alcoholic. And a hedonist.”

“I am not!” he exclaimed, “and I am offended that you would even say such a thing.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, I’m pretty sure it’s a genetic trait for your lot.”

“Noctis is about the furthest thing from a hedonist there is.”

“Oh really? And when he likes something, does he get anything less than the absolute best? And does he spend a truly terrifying time indulging in it?”

“That is addiction, not hedonism, and it is merely the human condition. In any case, I have a glass of wine while I work, it helps sober me up.”

“Wow. Just wow. How does Clarus put up with you?”

“What are you talking about? I am a perfectly amiable person.”

“Yes, to those that don’t know you.”

Regis looked into her eyes and said very seriously, “Sylva.”

“Yes, Regis?” she answered back, equally serious.

“Screw you.”

“You’re not my type.”

“Ugh. Fine, do you want a drink?”

The Oracle looked down at the half empty bottle of wine on the table and said, “sure, why not.”

After receiving a glass from Regis she laid back and took a sip, “oh, this is good.”

“I know, Weskham sent me the really good Altissian shit since I'm close by.”

“So is there a reason you’re well on your way to getting plastered?”

Regis was silent for a long while, simply staring into his wine glass as if it had all the answers in life, “I’ve received a report from the Council, the daemon attack was an assassination attempt by Nifleheim. They’re gearing up for war again.”

“Things have only just died down from Galahd.”

“You think they care?” Regis snorted.

“You think they’re going to start coming after you?”

Regis sighed, “it’s either going to be you or me. We’re the only ones left that aren’t under Nifleheim’s thumb.”

“And you think it’s just a matter of time until we fall?”

“They’re making the MTs from daemons Sylva, babies they grow in test tubes and then they poison them with the starscourge and so they can just let those nightmares loose out onto the field. They’re never ending. Astrals knows I tried to hold them back in Galahd, but it seems even the powers of the gods aren’t capable of defeating the depravity of mankind.”

“Well then,” the Oracle said matter of factly, draining her cup, “I suppose that whichever of us lives longest has the unenviable task of doing their best to protect the children. Good luck.”

Regis raised an eyebrow, “why do you assume it’ll be me?”

“Because I don’t have a clue how to fight. It’s not something they teach Oracles for some reason.”

The conversation devolved into inanity after that and they spent the night curled around each other like kittens, but when they woke the next morning Sylva stroked his hair and said, “promise me Regis, if I don’t make it out of this, protect my children.”

Regis turned to her and looked her in the eye, “I promise, and if they get me instead, protect Noctis?”

“I promise,” she whispered, dropping a kiss on his forehead.

***************************

But now she was gone, leaving only the ghost of her touch on his skin and a horrible feeling of guilt that he had not been able to do as she asked. He had to rescue them, he had to.

Drautos and Lazarus walked in and saluted, shaking him from his train of thought, “your Majesty.”

“I have a mission for you,” the king said, intertwining his fingers, “I need you to extract Ravus and Lunafreya Nox Fleuret from Fenestala Mansion in Tenebrae, before they’re moved.”

“Of course your Majesty.”

“Take as many people as you think you’ll need and any supplies as well. Drautos, I’m expecting this to succeed,” came the delicately put warning.

But it was Lazarus who responded, “your Majesty, would it not be best to wait? An extraction mission now would be almost impossible, considering how Tenebrae must be overrun with Nifleheim’s army.”

Regis put his head in his hands and shook his head, “possibly. Very well, scouting mission. Make sure you know the location of the Nox Fleurets. Get yourselves ready, you leave asap.”

Regis sighed again as the door closed behind them and after a few long minutes Nyx, who had been hearing Acnae words since the beginning of the conversation, finally spoke.

“If you wait that long they’ll be long gone. Especially if they find scouts in the area.”

“You’re right. But I can hardly send my men on a suicide mission. Especially not my glaives.”

Nyx breathed deeply and stepped into his King’s direct line of vision, “then send me, your Majesty.”

Regis raised an eyebrow, “and you would claim to be able to retrieve them? With no knowledge of the land, the troop movements, the manor, or where exactly the children are?”

The glaive clenched his fingers, “yes, your Majesty.”

Regis stood, “you can promise me that?”

Nyx knelt, “yes, your Majesty, I will get them away from Nifleheim and to Lucis, even if it kills me.”

“No. No. Take any gamble you think is necessary, but do not end up dead. How many do you want to take with you?”

Nyx thought carefully, but really if he wanted to do an infiltration job there was only one real option, “I’ll only need one other glaive, Crowe Altius. It has to be her.”

“Very well,” Regis said, scribbling a quick note, signing it and stamping it with a brand of the Lucian royal family, “give that to her direct superior. When will you leave?”

“Tonight. When it gets dark.”

Regis raised an eyebrow, “most people are wary of travelling at night.”

Nyx shrugged and gave him a wolfish grin, “most people aren’t Ulrics.”

“So you can use it,” Regis smiled, fondly.

Nyx felt a little shocked, even with the information Acnae had given him earlier, “and you do actually know about it.”

Regis just sighed, “your father was a friend of mine.”

“In that case, I’ll be expecting some stories when I get back. As a reward for a mission well done,” his expression positively wild.

Another soft smile toyed at the edges of Regis’ lips, “very well then. Once you return.”

And with that Nyx turned and left the office, blood singing, he finally had a new hunt.

****************************

Later, when Clarus finally managed to get back to the King he asked him what the hell was going on. Regis shrugged and answered cryptically, “I took a gamble, I had a feeling.”

“Regis, we’ve talked about this,” Clarus blew out in exasperation, “you can’t just base things on feelings you have. How the hell are we going to explain this to the Council?”

Regis moved to the window and smiled as he watched Nyx and Crowe leave the safe house, “that’s the wonderful thing about being King Clarus, I can tell the Council to go suck their own dicks.”

As the two brave glaives disappeared from their line of sight, Regis turned away and walked towards the door, he had done enough work, he was going to go spend time with his son. At the door he stopped and turned back, “and Clarus, if they succeed, I don’t care how young they are, I’m making him captain and her the deputy.”


	2. Making New Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I found out something interesting while I was writing this chapter, apparently Nifleheim has been on this let's invade the world phase for about 400yrs before the game started (that I already knew), what I didn't know was that in the first year of their "expansion phase" they successfully invaded and took control of Tenebrae, leaving only the Oracle's mansion alone because if they invaded the mansion it would have caused riots, even from within their own nation. 
> 
> This, in my mind, makes the context of what happened with Regis at the manor quite different, because it's not Lucis is abandoning their strong ally Tenebrae, it means that in canon Lucis is the only power left that challenges Nifleheim and has been for at least a few hundred years, as we know Accordo, the only other power mentioned in the game, has been part of Nifleheim for at least a few centuries. And that Regis was dropping in for some help for his son, without all the royal protocol and fanfare that usually occurs when there's a state visit, in all honesty, it is very possible that Regis only took himself, Noctis and Clarus with him on the trip, I'm pretty sure I saw Clarus with Regis in one of those shots in the opening scenes of Kingsglaive.

Nyx snorted as he looked up at Fenestala manor from the servants entrance.

Crowe just looked confused, “why are there no guards here?” she whispered.

“Apparently the man who’s taken over here is a complete noble. Family’s been kissing the Emperor’s asses for generations now,” a voice came from behind.

Slowly they both turned around to face an old gardener and Nyx smiled sheepishly, “I don’t suppose you’d believe us if we told you we’re servants here? New ones obviously.”

“Not dressed like that I wouldn’t,” the old man snorted.

“Come with me, I’ll get you to Maria. She’ll get you where you need to go.”

“And where is it you think we need to go?” Crowe asked warily.

“I think you need to get to the Prince and Princess. And I think you need some help before you get caught.”

“And you’re just gonna help us out of the goodness of your heart?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. But those kids haven’t been let out of their rooms and there’s already talk of them getting beaten up pretty bad. Look, if you guys get caught, there ain’t nothing I can do, but if you can get them out…”

“Alright,” Nyx said easily, much to Crowe’s consternation, “what? sometimes you’ve got to take a leap of trust, and he seems like a pretty honest fellow.”

Luckily for them, the gardener wasn’t lying. He took them to a woman who worked in the kitchen, named Sarah, who then took them to a maid? manservant? named Vincent who then took them to a butler named Simon who then finally took them to the head of the manor’s workers, Maria.

As the stern middle aged woman bustled them into a small, dark, empty room her eyes glittered, “so, King Regis sends some children to kidnap our children does he?”

Nyx grinned, letting fire fill his palm, “milady, I can guarantee you, we’re not children.”

She raised an eyebrow, “you can put that away boy, and nobody’s ever called me milady in my life and they ain’t going to start now. Get changed into these,” she demanded, shoving uniforms into their respective chests, “their highnesses respective stewards were dismissed, but I’ll be damned if they’re replaced with this brainless Nifleheim stock they’ve started shipping in. You’ll shadow them, do whatever it is they ask and you’ll keep your head down. And when you get the chance, get them out of here. What are your names?”

“Nyx.”

“Crowe.”

She shook her head, “too Lucian. Luckily enough you don’t look too Lucian as well. From now on you’re Jack and Ella.”

“What about last names?”

Maria snorted, “what about last names? Whoever asks for a servant’s last name?” she shook her head and walked out, leaving them a map so that they could find their charges.

**************************

Nyx found his princeling in the training room. It was a little late to be practising now, he thought to himself, according to Regis Ravus was sixteen, old enough by Galahdian standards that the fact that he did not pick up his blade and fight was a horrible mark against him, especially considering he was trained. So Nyx found he had little pity for this prince, who had frozen and left screaming over his mother’s corpse, instead of taking up his sword in one hand, his sister by the other and getting her to safety.

He had been thirteen when King Regis had protected him and gotten him off the battlefield, he was fourteen the first time he became the protector for his friends, for Libertus and Crowe. So the fact that the twelve year old girl with no weapons or combat training had shown more courage than this prince he was supposed to be rescuing made him feel combative. He would beat a real spine into this prince, make a real warrior out of him, like the people of Tenebrae deserved.

So he slipped in and watched his new charge, just like a good servant would. He stood still, watching the prince’s blade work, it was smooth enough and he had good technique, but he was so predictable Nyx almost wanted to cry. This wasn’t a warrior, it was a boy picking up parent’s weapon and playing pretend. He was looking at a child who had copied whatever he saw with no idea as to how or why certain moves worked or didn’t.

A true noble, Nyx thought to himself.

Once the princeling had finally finished the kata he turned to face the glaive, “and who are you?”

Nyx gave his most charming smile, “Jack, your new steward.”

“You don’t sound Tenebraen, where are you from?”

“Huh, still shows, fancy that,” he laughed, rubbing the back of his head, “Galahd, I moved here when the Niffs began invading.”

“So King Regis abandoned you too,” Ravus snorted.

Nyx had to stop himself from punching the entitled little prince in the face.

**************************

Crowe walked into what she had been told was the princess’ room with a tray of soup in one hand, “knock knock Princess, I’m bringing you some dinner.”

She heard some scrambling in the next room of the suite and decided to wait until the girl let her in. Eventually a blonde head poked hesitantly out around the door, “who are you?” she asked timidly.

Under the amateurly applied concealer Crowe could see a large horrible bruise on her cheek, she hissed in sympathy and put the tray down on a nearby table.

“I’m Ella, I’m your new steward, handmaid, whatever they’re calling it these days.”

“Um, it’s fine, I have Gentiana, I’ll be alright.”

“You shouldn’t be talking with a bruise like that, and if Gentiana is the woman behind you you wouldn’t be fooling anyone, just call her your spiritual messenger and be done with it,” Crowe said matter-of-factly, “in the mean time, you are a twelve year old girl who needs someone to look after her. Now, are you going to let me help you with that or not?” she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, nodding at the bruise.

“I-I have some ice, I’ll be fine,” the small girl said, looking at her feet.

“Fine then, we can do it out here, come on Princess. You can even bring your advisor with you.”

Luna looked up, surprise obvious on her face and sent an unsure glance towards the messenger, who nodded and smiled. Crowe retreated to the cream couches in the sitting room and patted the seat next to her, trying to give her a comforting smile.

The girl shuffled towards her shyly, two dogs at her feet, and sat down as she was told, looking up through her fringe at the older woman when she felt her had touch her cheek.

“It’s alright, you shouldn’t feel anything beyond some tingling,” Crowe said softly, letting her natural magic gather in her finger tips, “the bastard who did this fractured the bone,” she muttered in disgust, “honestly, hitting children. That’s just ridiculous.”

“You know healing magic?” Luna asked desperately.

“Yes, how much do you know, about healing magic?”

“Mother didn’t really get to teach me much. Before she died.”

“Before she was murdered,” Crowe corrected, pushing more magic into the injury, “you might have to play by their rules when they’re looking, but there’s no need to do it when they’re not here.”

“Really? Because none of the servants are the same anymore and Ravus is blaming King Regis for some reason.”

Crowe, who did not suffer from the severe case of hero worship regarding the King of Lucis as Nyx did, was not automatically inclined to believe that the King was entirely in the right, perhaps he had made the best of a bad situation, perhaps he hadn’t, she hadn’t been there so she wasn’t even going to try and judge, “that’s his prerogative, it doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks, it matters what you think. So, what do you think?”

The girl stiffened and curled in on herself, “I think that if Ravus hadn’t sat there screaming we could have been in Lucis by now. And that I don’t know why the General went for Mother first, but I hate him for it.”

“I know that feeling well enough.”

“Really, why? I mean, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“First thing’s first, do you have any other injuries?”

“He kicked me in the stomach too.”

“Okay,” Crowe nodded, sliding off the couch and onto her knees in front of the kid, “lie down for me, and lift up your shirt.”

The girl did as she was told, so Crowe answered her question, just to distract her, it wasn’t like she liked the kid or anything, “for some reason people are wary of anyone who has magic and isn’t tied to a family. I’m an orphan, I don’t have a long illustrious lineage of magic users who have been doing their best to save the world or protect it or some shit like that.”

She felt Luna startle under her at the swear word and made a mental note to ease up on it.

“Until I met my brothers I didn’t have anyone, people would chase me off the streets and out of towns, any bad luck that may have happened was generally blamed on me. It’s why I have respect for the leaders in Lucis, whenever they heard about a magic user who was on their own they did their best to track them down and make sure they’re well looked after, they even take people from Accordo and Tenebrae.”

“Oh, I saw King Regis do that!”

“Really?” Crowe raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, once Noc- Prince Noctis was well adjusted and mother had assured him he would be fully healed, King Regis went into a few of the towns in Tenebrae. Once he brought a few people back to the manor with him, and sent them off the Lucis.”

“It is the duty of the King of the Stone, to protect those who have been given Eos’ blessing, such as yourself, little bird,” Gentiana appeared behind them, speaking for the first time, “one might even wonder if those blessed with such gifts might be able to aid him in holding up the wall.”

Then she vanished, as if she had never been there, but Crowe frowned thoughtfully, that would be something to report the King once she had returned.

“So why didn’t you go to Lucis?”

“Well,” she sighed heavily, “one of my brothers decided to stay here, and someone needs to keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn’t get into trouble.”

“So he’s a trouble maker?”

“Even worse, he’s something of a hero, can’t help himself. He sees someone who needs help and he just jumps in, doesn’t even think about it, it’s why I ended up following him around.”

“And the other one?”

“Don’t know, we got separated,” she lied for the first time, and from the looks of it the Princess knew it, but Crowe looked her in the eye and wouldn’t change her story.

******************************

Nyx snuck into Ravus’ room, after a dull day of following the prince around, he figured it would be a good idea to, well he didn’t actually have a reason, but he was bored and pissing off the prince seemed to be a good a pastime as any.

“How did you get in here? That door was locked.”

Nyx looked at the prince with a deadpan expression, “how does anyone get through a locked door, I picked it.”

“A skill that only belongs to thieves and spies,” Ravus sneered.

The glaive shrugged, “I know quite a few thieves and spies. They tend to make good company.”

“Of course you would think so.”

“Are you always this much of a dick?”

“Excuse me?”

“Sorry, are you always this much of a dick, your highness?”

“You’re fired!”

“You can’t, I checked. My shift ended an hour ago. You can’t fire me for actions taken after hours, I had Maria put it in the contract.”

“And why would Maria do that for you?” the prince snarled, all pretences of civility disappearing.

“Probably because after the incident a few days ago. She figured you might need someone who knows what they’re doing, astrals know you don’t.”

Everything went red, the rage swallowed him whole and only the memory of his parents telling him in no uncertain terms that only bullies and tyrants attacked servants stopped him from swinging his sword at this uncouth, uncultured peasant, “how dare you-”

“Pick up your sword.”

“What?” everything ground to a halt.

“You heard me. You need to learn how to fight. And swinging your sword at imaginary enemies might make you feel better but it won’t teach you to fight.”

“I have been trained extensively by-”

“Tell you what, if you can hit me, I’ll quit. I won’t even try and hit back, or defend myself. Just try and hit me. Come on, you know you want to.”

With that Ravus broke, he picked up his sword and dove at Nyx. Luckily Ravus really was that predictable, the glaive thought to himself, diagonal downwards slash, mid-horizontal strike, twist and yes he was trying for a sneaky neck jab. Nyx continued dodging for five or six minutes, but no matter what variation Ravus tried he couldn’t hit him, he was like a ghost.

“Aaaah!” Ravus screamed throwing one last desperate slash at the glaive but Nyx just slid smoothly to the right, “are you done now?”

“Fuck you,” Ravus panted, “how did you do it.”

“You’re predictable.”

“You’re trained.”

“Yes.”

“So who taught you.”

“I’m from Galahd, and I’m twenty, honestly do you know anything about what goes on outside your walls?”

“Galahd fell years ago.”

“Almost two now, but we’re hunters, we all know how to fight. We also know how to survive.”

“So what, Maria thinks I need help now,” it wasn’t a question.

“Honestly yes. You’re fighting hard, not smart, and you could use some smart,” Nyx sighed looking the prince up and down. He had his work cut out for him, it was completely unfair, Crowe wasn’t having nearly as much trouble with her charge.

“Up you get, first thing’s first, we need to do some free sparing,” the glaive grinned, picking up an older practice sword from the mantle piece.

“Here?”

“What, you think that when you’re in a fight it’s gonna be in a nice clear space where the ground is flat and there aren’t any obstacles in the way? The training room is for people who are starting out, you’ve got the basics down you just need someone to show you the difference between fighting and dancing.”

Nyx drilled Ravus for another half hour before putting a stop to it, the kid was beginning to look exhausted and he wasn’t used to heavy intensity sparing. In any case, thirty five minutes wasn’t bad for someone who had just graduated to open sparring on his primary weapon.

“That’s enough.”

“What, no! I can keep going.”

Nyx frowned pulled a fancy trick with the practice blade and disarmed the prince, “when I say we’re done, we’re done, kid. Got it?”

“So what’s the deal, you’re in charge now? Whatever you say goes?”

“Nyx raised an eyebrow, “when I’m training you, yes.”

Ravus hesitated warily, this man could probably, quite easily force him into submission, but he wasn’t even trying, it was suspicious, he came out of nowhere, pulled stunts like this and then didn’t ask for anything, what did this strange man want?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I started writing this chapter I was surprised by how determined Nyx was to hate Ravus. But it kind of makes sense, Nyx comes from a warrior culture and that Galahd was invaded at some point when he was a kid, we aren't sure when it fell, but we know it was invaded. We also know that Ravus was trained to fight before Nifleheim's invasion. Because I call bullshit that Ravus could kick Gladio's ass if he only picked up a weapon after the manor fell under imperial control, Gladio would have been training waaaaaaaay longer so there shouldn't have been such an obvious strength disparity.
> 
> So Ravus knows how to fight, and then the one time he needs to fight, he should fight, to protect his sister if no-one else, he freezes and sits there crying on the floor. I'm not saying it's not an understandable reaction, I'm just saying that in Nyx's mind this makes Ravus a coward and unreliable, especially when he compares that Luna stayed behind for Ravus (and since they aren't a ruling family it is purely for Ravus' sake), so Nyx needs to make him reliable so he doesn't freeze up again during their escape, and if he has to push Ravus right out of his comfort zone to do I don't think he would hesitate. Nyx is a good guy but I've never pictured him as a gentle one.
> 
> Also regarding the fact that Nyx and Crowe got where they needed to so quickly, I feel the staff would be loyal to the Oracle, who was just murdered by Glauca and who just beat up Luna, to feelings towards Niflehiem are going to be pretty frosty at this point, and a good rule of thumb is that the servants always know everything. So if you find two people in Lucian stealth gear outside the manor, in the garden your Lady was just murdered in, even if they're just here for information at this point, any blow against Nifleheim is one I can get behind, after all Lucis is the only enemy Nifleheim has left.


	3. Moving On From Here

Just over a week had passed and the two glaives had made themselves accepted figures in the lives of the Nox Fleurets, Nyx was now respected, but still not liked, by Ravus and he had to admit that the princeling wasn’t doing so badly, he was learning at least and Luna was getting along famously with Crowe, learning magics under her careful directions.

“See, change the hair and eye colouring and put on some commoner clothes and suddenly, you don’t look like the Oracle anymore,” Crowe winked into the mirror. Luna fluffed up her hair a bit and frowned, “I still feel too recognisable, can we make my hair look a little wilder?”

Crowe smiled cheekily, “oh honey, we don’t need a glamour for that, what you need is this!” she exclaimed pulling out a bottle of hair styling spray from behind her back, discreetly calling from the armiger.

“I saw that,” Luna reproved.

“I certainly have no clue what you mean by that, my Lady,” the older girl laughed. Crowe wasn’t sure exactly when Lunafreya had figured out she was a glaive, but one night a few days ago as she was tucking the younger girl in bed Luna had grabbed her by the hand and asked shyly what her real name was.

Luna, Crowe had discovered, was a quiet and mature girl, but recent events had beaten her down, made her almost timid, so Crowe had spent her days with the lonely girl, showing and teaching her little magic tricks and slowly coaxing her out of her shell.

As she helped Luna apply the last touches to her glamour and fluffed her hair into something a little wilder, more resembling Crowe’s eternal bed head, she gave her a fond smile and a gentle hug, much to the girl’s delight, who snuggled deeper into her arms as a result. Luna was still marginally wary of any sort of physical contact, but whenever Crowe showed her even the slightest bit of affection the girl’s face would light up and Crowe would feel her own brand of fierce affection rushing up in return.

“I made myself an inch shorter as well,” Luna whispered.

Crowe nodded, “remember, try not to change sizes too much, you can’t see your own glamour and if you react strangely when other people think they’re touching you your whole deception could go up in smoke.”

The younger girl nodded and giggled, “I’ll remember. But could you imagine, what Mother would-”

Crowe could feel the young Oracle stiffen in her arms, so she hugged the girl tighter and began rocking her, “shhhh, shhhh, you’re alright, you’ll be okay, I promise, I’m here aren’t I and I’ll look after you.”

Lunafreya twisted violently and clung onto the other girl, “Mother’s gone, and Ravus might as well be gone as well. I haven’t seen him since they came and they haven’t let me out of my room. Ella it hurts, it hurts so much.”

“I know, I know, baby girl. I’m so sorry.”

She had planned to sneak the girl past the guards and out of her room today, Luna’s glamour had been getting good enough, but she had been pretending that everything was alright, that everything was normal admirably well until now. But Luna should cry, needed to cry and Crowe wasn’t going to make her stop because it ruined plans or she wasn’t sure how to deal with this, because she was only a week in and already she cared too much. For all that she pretended she wasn’t just as soft as Libertus she was, she really was.

*************************

Nyx was lying on the couch, legs up and arms crossed behind his head, watching Ravus study.

“Do you ever do anything?” Ravus snarled, a week later and their relationship still hadn’t gotten any less antagonistic, but they had found a certain level of respect for one another.

“Why? Do you want a snack?”

“I’m having trouble with this question,” he admitted grudgingly.

Nyx sighed and opened his eyes, “what are you doing?”

“Physics.”

“Well, can’t help you there,” the man shrugged.

“Why doesn’t it surprise me that you didn’t do physics.”

“Try thinking before you open your mouth pretty boy,” Nyx snarked, “my home was a war zone for four years before I escaped, after that I needed a job more than I did an education.”

“An education helps you get a good job.”

“Yeah, but I had mouths to feed, I wasn’t about to let my brother and sister starve because I wanted an education, they got it instead.”

“Then how did you get hired here?”

“I told you, remember, special skills, these tattoos aren’t just for show. I’m a good enough hunter in my own right.”

“So what they want someone at my back, just in case something happens again.”

Nyx rolled his eyes, “do you blame them. They got too confident they were safe once, if I was them I would try to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.”

Ravus sighed running a hand through his hair, “what do you know about magnets?”

“That they have two poles, opposites attract and somehow that’s how you make a compass.”

“You really need an education,” he muttered in disgust.

But Nyx just snorted, “trust me, in ten years time that’s all you’ll remember too. Why don’t you take a break, enjoy yourself, visit your sister, you know the one you haven’t seen in a week?”

Ravus clenched his hands, “I don’t have time to waste.”

Nyx turned to look directly at the young man, “Ravus, you’re locked up in your own home, your sister is three doors down, there are MTs crawling around everywhere and Nifleheim has stripped the staff down to a skeleton crew so that they can’t help you, they’re too busy doing their jobs and making sure they aren’t fired too. At this point all you have is time, and you have to use it wisely.”

“And my education isn’t a good use of my time?”

Nyx sighed, “all I’m saying is that if I was you, I would be figuring a way to get my sister out of here, not pouring over physics books.”

Ravus put his head in his hands and rubbed his face harshly, “and how do I do that. I know I need to protect Lunafreya, but I don’t know how.”

Nyx sat up, “ultimately it doesn’t matter if you keep her physically safe or not-”

“How can you say that?” Ravus snarled.

“Hear me out,” Nyx sighed, holding a hand in the air, “she’s the Oracle, and at this stage, there isn’t a spare, Nifleheim will do everything they can to keep her under their control, if she gets to Lucis they’ll do everything they can to keep her safe and out of Nifleheim’s hands, if she gets to Accordo I’m pretty sure the Secretary there will risk crossing both Nifleheim and Lucis to ensure her safety. Even the MTs will be programmed not to kill her. Everyone wants her alive. So you have to make a choice, who’s wall are you going to hide behind.”

Ravus chewed his lip, “if we stay with Nifleheim my sister’s safety is all but guaranteed.”

“Astrals!” Nyx exclaimed, rolling his eyes, “were you listening to anything I just said? No country is fool enough to risk killing the Oracle at this stage, none, even if she outright defies them, even if she tells everyone who will listen until she’s blue in the face how evil and terrible their country is. In this case your first priority isn’t your sister’s safety, it’s her happiness, her peace of mind. Honestly, do I have to lead you by the nose?”

“How can you guarantee that?” Ravus asked desperately, “how can you guarantee she won’t die, that she’ll be safe?”

Nyx sighed heavily, “I can’t and no-one can give you that guarantee for certain. But take it from someone who has experience, you need to give her her freedom, you can’t lock her up just in the name of keeping her safe, otherwise you will make an enemy of her and you’ll be fighting a war on two fronts.”

“Experience?” Ravus pushed, for the first time actually curious about his new servant.

The glaive turned away, staring into the distance, “I had a little sister. She was a few years younger than me, I tried to keep her safe in the war zone Galahd had turned into. As I became more and more draconian, she became more and more determined to follow the path she had set for herself. One night, I went to find food for us. I told her to stay in the shelter we had found, I even locked her in when she wouldn’t promise to stay. When I returned a few hours later she wasn’t there, so I went looking, a few hours later, as the sun was rising I found her corpse, riddled with bullet holes.”

He turned back to look Ravus dead in the eye, “I’m telling you now Ravus, don’t ever let her see you as an obstacle to be worked around, if she can’t rely on you, she’ll slip through your fingers when you’re not looking and that’ll have been the last time you see her.”

The boy shivered, an icy feeling running down his back, “so you’re saying I should prioritise her freedom over her safety?”

“I’m saying you have to balance her needs and wants with your desire to keep her safe. If you just force her will on yours, she’ll find the help somewhere else and she’ll just do what she wants to do. She’s the Oracle Ravus, you can’t tell me there would be a shortage of people willing to help her. She’s your sister Ravus, if you want to help her, first you have to talk to her.”

The glaive got up and made his way to the door, “just something to think about.”

******************************

Nyx sighed as he closed the door behind him and discreetly scented the air, trying to get a hold of Crowe. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, Crowe had a pretty distinct scent, anyone with magic did. The first time he had smelled King Regis’ scent as a child he had almost been completely overwhelmed, magic smelled like power and danger and Crowe, for all that she pretended that she had only gained magic after joining the glaive, was born with it.

Unfortunately Crowe had spent a lot of time running errands for the young Oracle, and so her scent was pretty strongly embedded in the foundation of the manor. So it was a bit of a nightmare to try and pinpoint her location. But Nyx couldn’t just stand outside the door in front of the guards forever, so he took a deep breath, and turned right. The scent was a little stronger on that side. Perhaps.

Trial and error finally led him onto the right scent trail and he made his way to his pack mate, Crowe may not agree that she was pack, but Nyx knew better, he had experience with little sisters, he knew one when he saw one, and if Crowe wasn’t Libertus’ little sister he would eat his kukris, bladed edge first.

He stopped in front of the Oracle’s door, the guards stopping him, human ones specially ordered in from Nifleheim, “what is your business here?”

Nyx sighed and lied through his teeth, “Lord Ravus would like to know how his sister is doing, so he sent me to check up on her.”

The guards looked at each other and relaxed their weapons, guns pointing at the ceiling once more, letting him through.

“Lady Lunafreya?” Nyx knocked and entered sitting room without waiting for an answer, closing the door behind him. Crowe peaked out around the door to what he assumed was the bedroom and Nyx smirked, “nice outfit.”

Crowe looked down at her sensible maid’s uniform and glared before shooting back, “not bad yourself footman.”

Nyx looked down took on a considering look for a second before smirking, cocking his hip and flipping his braids over one shoulder, “I know, don’t I look hot?”

Crowe just rolled her eyes, and slid into the room, closing the door almost silently behind her, “keep it down, I’ve put the kid to sleep.”

“Isn’t she a bit old for an afternoon nap?” Nyx raised an eyebrow, collapsing into a couch.

“Yeah, but after a good cry, what else is she supposed to do?”

Nyx hissed in sympathy, “you got her to mourn?”

“I got her to cry, at least,” she shrugged.

“Well, it’s better than nothing.”

“No luck with Ravus, I’m guessing?”

“At all. I think I’m getting into his thick head, slowly but surely, but the only thing he’s thinking about these days is little Lady Luna.”

“But he still doesn’t have the balls to come visit her?”

“I tried to convince him to come. I’m not entirely sure I failed.”

Crowe raised both eyebrows, waiting for him to elaborate, he gave in with a sigh, “that kid needs time to think things over. Put him in a think fast situation and he’s totally useless.”

“Well, that explains some things at least.”

The continued talking for a few hours, sunset came and went, before they were interrupted.

“Ella?” a high pitched voice called from the bedroom door, as a small girl who could only be Lunafreya Nox Fleuret poked her head around the door.

“Hey kiddo,” Crowe smiled, patting the seat on the couch next to her, “you want to come sit with me?”

The girl spent a few seconds mulling it over before slipping through the gap, bringing a fluffy pillow with her. Hopping up onto the couch and snuggling into Crowe’s side and whispering, “hello, my name is Lunafreya,” as she hid half her face in the pillow.

“Hi, you can call me Jack, milady,” Nyx replied with a wink and a roguish grin. Luna blushed and tried to hide even more of her face in the pillow while peaking at this handsome stranger.

Crowe rolled her eyes, “alright, enough of that, heartbreaker.”

“I have no idea what you’re on about.”

The woman turned back to Lunafreya and pointing a finger at her said, “don’t think I don’t know what that look on your face means missy, and I’m telling you now to forget it, this one is nothing but trouble.”

Luna looked at Crowe with wide eyes, her blush moving to her ears as well and she mumbled a denial.

“Oh come on, it’s not her fault I’m this awesome.”

Turning her finger on Nyx she snorted, “you are not half as good as you think you are pretty-boy.”

“See, even you admit to my awesomeness,” the man grinned, intentionally missing her point.

“Oh shut up, Jack, just tell the poor girl what’s been going on with her brother.”

“You’ve seen Ravus?” Luna blurted out, hopefully.

“Yeah,” he smiled, “I’m his new steward. So I’ve been hanging around him for the last week or so.”

“Thank you,” the girl said bowing her head.

“No problem,” the smile softened, something about this girl just made him feel like he should treat her gently, “things were a little rocky in the beginning, but you don’t have to worry, I’ll keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“I’m in your debt.”

“For something as simple as this?” Nyx raised a brow in mock shock, “I could hardly accept, from a pretty girl like you, your thanks is more than enough.”

“She’s a little young to be flirting with like this don’t you think?” Crowe rolled her eyes again.

“Ella, if I was flirting, she would know.”

“Then you should tone everything down a few notches,” she responded sardonically.

And as they continued to bicker, Luna folded her legs under her and sat back to watch.

*******************************

Ravus stalked down the halls of the manor towards his sister’s room, his steward’s words still echoing in his mind. He passed the guards and through the doors to his destination with hardly a word. The sight before him was not something he expected, his twelve year old sister was leaning over his steward, staring into his eyes, the remnants of a feast left on the table behind them.

“This is a tattoo as well?” she asked, “it looks almost like a freckle.”

“It’s supposed to,” Nyx responded cheerfully, “it means that I have very good vision.”

“So what?” she pressed curiously, “is that so it makes it so only other people who have really good eye sight can look at it and know what it means?”

“Something like that.”

Crowe came sauntering back into the sitting room, “you, kiddo, are supposed to take your medicine.”

“I don’t want to go to sleep,” Luna pouted, “I don’t need it.”

Crowe rolled her eyes, “don’t you start getting difficult with me missy-”

“Aww, come on Ella, let the poor kid stay up a little longer,” Nyx smiled charmingly.

Crowe rolled her eyes and turned away, spotting Ravus, “hello, looks like we have a visitor.”

“Oh yeah, he came into the room and froze, figured he would say hi when he recovered from whatever it was that shocked him,” Nyx said casually as Luna looked past him and smiled.

“Ravus!”

Ravus tried to return the smile, but even as he did he could feel that it was more of a grimace than anything else, and fiddled with his fingers, “Lunafreya.”

Luna shimmied off the couch and trotted up to her brother, clasping his hands in hers, “I’m so glad you came, the guards aren’t letting me out of my room.”

“They’ve been locking you up?” Ravus seemed affronted.

Luna nodded wordlessly and Ravus folded her into a tight embrace. Crowe and Nyx exchanged glances before leaving the suit, some things should remain private, especially family matters.

“I don’t want to be here anymore Ravus.”

“But this is… the blood of the Oracle has always lived-”

“I know. But this is where they killed mother.”

“And where would we go? Lucis? Accordo?”

“Anywhere. Anywhere that isn’t here.”

Ravus sighed and tugged his sister closer to him, “I’ll see what I can do.”


	4. The Great Escape

“Luna will come with me,” Crowe whispered to Nyx, eyes carefully focused on the task at hand, placing the last of the lunch plates on the tray.

Nyx sighed, doing the same next to her, “I’m not sure about Ravus, he’s not sharing much.”

“Can you drag him along?”

“Do you really have to ask?” he looked her dead in the eye.

“Tonight?”

Nyx shook his head, “tomorrow. I need to get word out, set off the distractions.”

Crowe lifted an eyebrow, but didn’t actually ask. It was risky enough for them to talk of it here, even if the kitchens were loud and the only place in the manor that wasn’t crawling with guards, another contingent had arrived from Nifleheim last week, MTs this time. Crowe had worked her magic, making everyone in the room more likely to ignore them, but none of it was a guarantee that they wouldn’t be found out.

Nyx delivered Ravus’ lunch like a good servant, who took it at his desk and didn’t take breaks for anything except visiting his sister, which he did for dinner. As he left Ravus to it he filched a piece of scrap paper the young lord had been using to work out some sort of equation, and a pen. Sitting down at the coffee table in the sitting room, facing the door, wrote a quick note with the date and time they would be moving before pocketing it, where the telltale blue sparks of Lucian magic couldn’t be seen, and sending it directly to the king.

Then he got back to work, it wouldn’t do for him to seem suspicious now, not when they were so close to completing the mission, to him proving himself to his king.

*************************

Regis felt it, something small entering from Nyx’s connection to the arsenal. He hadn’t given Nyx much space, not enough to store much more than his daggers and Crowe’s gun. Pulling it out in front of him he saw turned the scrap of paper in his hand, it was only a few equations, why would Nyx think it important enough to, there. In different coloured ink, in what could only be Nyx’s rough hand, a date and time, printed clearly and carefully. The glaive wasn’t taking any chances, good.

Tomorrow night, nine o’clock, they would have the cover of darkness, the children wouldn’t be too tired and the guards would be reaching the end of their shift. Regis smiled and felt relieved he had had the foresight to give Nyx the same resources he had Cor and Clarus. Allowing him those privileges did mean Nyx had access to an intensely personal part of his powers, but he didn’t hesitate, or regret it, it was necessary for the children to be able to escape.

“Clarus! Cor!” he called out. They responded quickly, as if there was an emergency, which there wasn’t, but they didn’t have time to waste either.

“Are Drautos and Lazarus still our best two glaives?” the King demanded.

“Without a doubt,” Clarus nodded.

“Good, send them and another team with Noctis. We’re moving out tomorrow. I want coordinated strikes against Nifleheim deployed at 7pm tomorrow. We need to pin them down and keep them busy. As such, all three of us will be taking to the field.”

Cor frowned, “with all due respect we will be massacred if it’s a straight up fight.”

“It doesn’t need to be. Just keep them busy and give our agents enough time to extract the Nox Fleurets. Feel free to use all the guerrilla tactics and dirty tricks necessary. Make them bleed.”

Clarus frowned, “are you sure you want to send four glaives with Noctis? He should be heading away from the fighting and we don’t have glaives to spare.”

“Yes, with all of us on the move things will be confusing and Noctis still can’t walk, he needs them. You’ve been bringing up Crownsguard platoons, deploy them as well as the remaining glaives.”

Clarus asked Regis one last question, “can you hold the Wall and fight at the same time?”

“As long as it isn’t against someone like Glauca, yes. Which is why you’ll be with me the whole time, Cor, I need you to go for their throats.”

A terrifying grin spread across Cor’s face, “finally.”

**************************

Crowe had been carefully packing a travel bag hidden in Lunafreya’s closet, filling it with various items that they might need during their escape over her stay at Fenestala. The difference this time, was that when she added one last pilfered elixir to the pile, she didn’t bother hiding it from Luna.

“Ella, why are you packing a bag?”

She grinned properly for the first time since she came here, wild and dangerous, “for the same reason my real name isn’t Ella.”

She waved a hand, setting up a subtle barrier to ensure their conversation couldn’t be overhear and gestured for the Oracle to come closer. Luna did, warily.

“My name is Crowe Altius, I’m a glaive under the command of the King.”

“But the Kingsglaive works in pairs - Jack? He’s your partner?” she murmured.

Crowe nodded, “we were tasked with facilitating your escape. The king assures that you will be looked after in Lucis to the best of our abilities.”

Luna narrowed her eyes, “and my brother?”

“That’s why my partner is with him, he’ll get your brother out.”

“And if I don’t want to stay in Lucis?”

“As long as your safety is assured, you will be allowed to do or go wherever you wish.”

“The empire won’t kill me.”

“Luna, take it from someone who knows, there is a world of difference between being alive and being safe.”

The Oracle cocked her head confused.

“No-one kills a witch, brings about bad luck, that doesn’t mean you’re safe.”

Luna clenched her fists, “you promise Ravus with come?”

“My partner will tie him up and drag him out of here if he needs to. He will come,” she looked the girl in the eye, deadly serious.

“When do we leave?” she whispered, fire lighting up her eyes.

“Tonight. Nine.”

A smile crossed her face, “I’ll get to see Noctis again.”

“You made friends with him? What’s he like?”

“You don’t know?”

“Never met him, the king is like a behemoth with a sore tooth when it comes to his kid.”

Luna giggled into her hands, “he’s very sweet. He couldn’t say my name properly, it’s why people started calling me Luna. I think having him is a lot like having a kitten.”

“A kitten, huh?”

“Yep, he has really soft hair, and he likes being petted. He made flower crowns with me, everyone said I was getting too old to make flower crowns, but they let me do it when Noctis was here.”

“Well then, we’ll have to get you back to him, then you’ll be able to make all the flower crowns you like. But first, practice your glamour, it has to be perfect for us to be able to get out quietly.”

“You wish to take the Oracle away from her Seat?” Gentiana appeared behind them. Crowe jumped, Gentiana hadn’t appeared often, but when she did Crowe hadn’t ever been able to sense her.

“Yes. I’m not leaving the poor girl here to be someone’s pawn.”

The messenger opened her eyes and smiled secretively, “move quickly, you have Shiva’s blessing.”

*************************

Nyx looked up, it was almost nine, Crowe had probably already started getting Luna out of the manor. Time for him to do his job.

He swaggered into Ravus’ room as the boy began stretching for his after hours lessons, and swung a backpack out from under the bed. The young Lord slammed the door open as Nyx was checking he had everything he needed, “what are you doing in my room?”

“Checking we have everything we need.”

“For what?”

“Our escape. Your sister is leaving now.”

“With who? With what protection? She’s going to end up dead in a ditch you bastard! I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you!” he snarled running forward and throwing a clumsy punch at Nyx’s nose. The glaive just sighed, swinging his arm around the oncoming one and pining it behind Ravus’ back.

“Calm down, we’re leaving too.”

“And how do you suppose we escape?” was the caustic reply, “there are two guards out there and we can’t simply fight our way out of the manor!”

Nyx grinned wildly, “we won’t have to, we’ll be leaving through the window.”

“When?”

“When the alarms sound that the Oracle is missing. It’ll give them something to chase.”

“And you think we can just outrun them?”

Nyx raised an eyebrow, “we’ll be disappearing into forests, we won’t need to outrun them, we just need to … slip past.”

“You’re a fool, they’ll have the whole army out looking for her!”

“That won’t be possible,” Nyx’s smile turned downright vicious, “not if they want to keep everything they’ve gained in Lucis for the last twenty years.”

Ravus’ eyes went wide, “why would that king do such a thing, he risks everything outside the wall!”

Nyx shrugged, “I guess you two must be that important to him.”

“That’s just ridiculous,” he began pacing, ranting as he did, and Nyx just stood there calmly, waiting for the inevitable sound of the alarm to come.

And it did, blaring through the halls, even shocking Ravus out of his rant.

“Sorry Lord Ravus,” Nyx grinned, “it’s time for us to go.”

He grabbed the bag in one hand and Ravus’ sleeve in the other, Ravus who had his actual sword on him because Nyx had said they would be using live steel tonight, and they were and dragged him into the bathroom, locking the door.

“Wonderful idea, are we going to climb through that window? It’s hardly big enough and it’s also quite difficult to reach and reinforced. We would have been better off going through the study.”

“Quit bitching, highness,” Nyx said shortly, letting the blood of the wolf flow through his veins, using his magic to make himself stronger and pulled his kukris out of the arsenal. Taking a look at the window, it wasn’t as small or as difficult to reach as Ravus made out, and as for reinforced, well, that soon wouldn’t be a problem. The glaive hopped up onto the sink and smashed through the frosted glass with the hilt of his knife. Ravus looked up at him incredulously, and Nyx just laughed, “frosted, and not very well reinforced, it’s not difficult to break you know.”

The glaive swung himself up and through the window in one fluid movement, disappearing from Ravus’ sight and hearing the guards burst into his suite he took a deep breath and followed after his annoying steward, albeit much less gracefully. As he hung from the window sill he looked around frantically, trying to find a safe way down.

“Come on, just drop!” Nyx called out below, safely on the ground, hidden in the garden bed. Ravus just clung to the sill tighter, it was a two story drop, there was no way he could just let go, he would break his leg, both if he was particularly unlucky, and he hadn’t been lucky since King Regis had brought his son to the manor. Maybe he was overdue some good luck.

He clung to the window sill, eyes clenched tight, praying, he wasn’t quite sure what for, as the sounds of the guards came closer. He could hear a door being kicked open and one guard call to the rest, “they went out the bathroom window, it’s broken!”

Praying it wouldn’t hurt too much, he let go.

Nyx grinned from his vantage point and threw his dagger. This little lord was no coward, scared certainly, but no coward. Warping into the side of manor wall, only a little ways off the ground, he kept a close eye on Ravus, timing was imperative. As Ravus fell, coming closer and closer, he threw himself in the younger man’s path, tackling him to the ground from the side, and cushioning him as they landed in the dirt.

“See, not so bad,” Nyx patted his shoulder, getting up almost immediately.

“And you think this is going to work?” Ravus hissed hysterically, “they’re going to drag me back to the manor and they’re going to kill you. Slowly.”

“Only if they catch me. Now, come on, we have to get to the forest before they swarm the gardens,” he said dragging Ravus along the side of the manor and down through the tall hedges towards the forest.

“Who the hell are you?” the young lord whispered, hurriedly.

“Nyx Ulric.”

“Impossible! Nifleheim destroyed that bloodline.”

“They did their best,” Nyx shrugged, “but King Regis saved me. He made sure I survived.”

“But he didn’t protect you,” Ravus said bitterly.

Nyx looked at the younger man oddly, barely pausing as they hit the forest, “I’m a Wolf of Galahd, why would I need protection?”

He seemed offended at the idea and Ravus couldn’t understand it, because Nyx couldn’t have been older than his own sister was now when Galahd had been invaded. Even if it had taken a bitter six years for Lucis to finally pull out as they took almost every surviving Galahdian citizen with them, leaving only a harsh and ultimately useless land for Nifleheim to claim.

As Ravus tried to think up a suitable response his supposed rescuer turned his nose up and began sniffing the air, eyes turning an eerie golden colour. Nyx narrowed his eyes and took another breath and grabbed Ravus’ hand, “they’re this way.”

***************************

Crowe walked out the side door of the manor, like she did every night at nine o’clock, the only difference today, was that Luna was at her side, her smaller hand clasped tightly in Crowe’s, the only sign of nervousness visible to the eye.

“Wait!” a guard called as they walked past, and the pair froze.

“Who’s that?” he asked pointing at Luna with a careless wave of his gun. Human, and young, both points in their favour Crowe thought, thank the Gods. Luna looked up at her in panic and Crowe tried to convey the message that it would be fine and that she should let her take care of it.

Crowe cringed and bowed, putting on a show, “I’m so sorry sir, this is my cousin, my older sister brought her in from outa town. She had the scourge and the Lady Oracle said yesterday I could bring her in with me today, and she would help heal her. I’m really sorry, I know we’re not supposed to burden the Lady Oracle with such things, but even though she’s so young she’s so very wise, she could tell something was bothering me yesterday when I brought her her meals and she offered so I brought her in this morning and no-one said anything-”

“Alright, alright!” the guard interrupted her babbling, “fine, I suppose just this once it can be forgiven. Just this once. The Oracle is too young to be spending too much time healing everyone, she’s too young to be taxing herself like that. It’ll have to go on your permanent record. What’s your name?”

Crowe bowed again, “thank you sir, thank you. My name is Ella sir, Ella Manson.”

“I know,” he rolled his eyes, “Now get going. Cleaning staff isn’t allowed on the grounds after nine thirty, and people without a permit aren’t allowed at all. You’re cutting it close.”

“Yes sir, sorry sir, we’ll be on our way,” she glanced up and blushed prettily, “I won’t forget your kindness. Umm. If you want to find me, you can get my contacts off Maria, she’s the head servant.”

The guard perked up, sensing that he might score, and smiled in what was probably supposed to be a seductive manner, “I just might, my name is Markus.”

“Nice to meet you, Markus,” Crowe smiled shyly, “well, I suppose I had better get going.”

And they walked off in peace. Once they had gotten far enough away to the path leading to the forest, Luna looked up hero worship, “how did you know that would work?”

Crowe raised an eyebrow, “he was a straight, young man. In the military.”

“How did you know he was straight?” she asked curiously as Crowe led them off the path and into the woods. After this she was going to teach the girl about stranger danger, but at this point the complete trust Luna had in her was a real advantage.

“He was looking at my boobs, and then my legs.”

“Ohh,” Luna nodded slowly, “so he was a pervert. Ravus told me about them.”

Crowe raised an eyebrow, that wasn’t exactly fair, but as someone who had an overprotective brother, who had often tried to keep her away from strange, skeevy men, she could honestly admire the way Ravus had gone about his objective. And despite Luna’s obvious crush on Nyx, there was no need to bog her down with realistic details now, so she nodded, “something like that.”

They trekked a little deeper into the woods, Crowe rubbing her wrist into various trees as they went, trying to leave a bit of a scent trail for Nyx to follow, when they heard the alarm. Luna looked up in alarm, “we aren’t very far away yet.”

“Nope, we’ve been going along the forest, so we’re only a little way away from the gardens.”

“Are they going to catch us?” she whispered fearfully.

“Nah, once Nyx brings Ravus, we’ll start running for real.”

Unfortunately, before Nyx found them, the cute soldier boy who had been interested in them did.

“You made a fool of me!”

She shrugged and sighed, “you were the one who decided to think with your downstairs brain.”

Luna chose that moment to lower her glamour, “you won’t hurt her,” she demanded imperiously, stepping out in front of the glaive, as if to protect her.

“So you are trying to kidnap the Oracle!”

“Did you tell anyone else your suspicions before running out here?” like an idiot, she thought.

The soldier narrowed his eyes and cocked his gun, “as if I would need back up to deal with a maid.”

The words were dripping with derision and Crowe had to remind herself that Nifleheim military was dumb, it was the only reason Galahd had lasted as long as it did, considering the twenty to one troop advantage they had over them. 

So Crowe sighed and said coldly “Luna, close your eyes,”

And as the soldier sneered out an agreement she gathered the magic in her hand and let the lightning fly. He was wearing light metal body armour, effective against bullets, not against magic, he never stood a chance. Luna opened her eyes to see the smoking corpse of a young man and retched.

Crowe dragged the girl a ways away, where the body wasn’t visible and hugged the shaking girl, “it’s alright, we’ll be fine.”

“They never let me see the bodies,” she said in a small voice, “not even mother, she had a closed casket burial.”

“I’m sorry sweetheart, I’m sorry you had to see it, but you should know … that’s … that’s probably not the last dead body you’ll see.”

“It’s scary.”  
“Death always is,” she responded quietly, “come on, lets get a little bit farther away.”

As she went to lead the girl, she heard a branch snap and she swore, the soldier had lied, they weren’t going to have the chance to wait for Nyx, the plan couldn’t be going to hell already-

“Woah,” Nyx said, hands up in surrender, “it’s just us, you can put the fireball away now.”

Crowe could have melted in relief, so she smirked, “I don’t think I will.”

Nyx raised an eyebrow, “really, you’re going to indulge in your vandalistic tendencies now?”

“Yep, if they’re too busy fighting a fire, they won’t be coming after us. Look after your sister for a second,” Crowe grinned, pushing Lunafreya into her brother’s arms, “you’re with me.”

The tree line to the edge of the forest was only a hundred feet away from the Nox Fleurets, it would take a minute tops. In the garden they could see Nifleheim’s troops gathering, there was even an air carrier or two. Smiling at Nyx she fired up another firaga spell, and saw Nyx do the same, and threw the spells as hard as she could right at the Nifs, not even waiting to watch them explode as she ran back to the kids.

They didn’t stop running as they passed the Nox Fleurets, Crowe grabbed Ravus’ hand, pulling him along and from the corner of her eye she saw Nyx pick up Luna and letting her ride piggy back.

"So if he's really Nyx Ulric, who the hell are you?" Ravus asked.

Crowe grinned, "Crowe Altius, nice to meet you."

Luna clung to Nyx and giggled, giving Ravus one massive grin, as they left the manor that had slowly been suffocating her behind.


	5. Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This should give you a little bit of an insight into how things went down in Lucis and how Nyx, Libertus and Crowe ended up the way they did. Also ties up a few loose ends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can't be bothered editing, too late for that, will do later, maybe tomorrow, probably.

“Dad,” Noctis whined, terrified, clutching onto his father’s suit.

“Hush Noctis, I need to you to go with Mr Drautos and his friends. They’ll keep you safe until you get back to the citadel.”

“You’re not coming with me?” he looked up piteously, big blue eyes filling with tears. Noctis had been loathed to part from him ever since the Marilith incident, only ever coaxed away by Lunafreya, who had been a fast friend, much to her brother’s dismay.

“No, I need to go and make sure Lunafreya and Ravus make it back safely. I’ll see you in Insomnia alright?”

“Promise?”

“I promise,” Regis smiled wanly, holding out a pinkie for his son to grasp. As Noctis’ smaller finger wrapped around his own he couldn’t help but place a soft kiss on his son’s forehead. Turning to Drautos, he reluctantly relinquished his son into the glaive’s waiting arms, “take good care of him,” he said desperately.

They piled into the armoured car, Noctis in the middle back seat, fastened tightly, securely placed between two glaives, as Regis closed the car door and stepped back. As they pulled out, away from the safe house Noctis leaned over one of his bodyguards, hands pressed against the window as he watched his father fade away into the distance.

When he could no longer see even the silhouette of his father he finally slumped back in his seat and hugged himself, feeling the terror of being vulnerable, of being so horribly unsafe brush at the edges of his mind. One of the glaives put her hand on his shoulder, the only female glaive in the car, and tried to comfort him, “it’ll be alright kid, soon we’ll be back in Insomnia, and your dad will be there too.”

Noctis could only nod mutely, wishing he still had the ability to hide his face in his knees.

*************************

Once Libertus and Acnae had retired with the young prince, Titus and Luche stood guard.

“What are our orders?” Luche whispered almost inaudibly, over the sound of the crackling fire.

“I’ve sent word that an extraction attempt will be made soon. The king will be killed and Lucis will be crushed, we have orders to ensure that our package never reaches it’s destination. There will be no rebellion or resistance. The enemy will be crushed. Utterly.”

Luche smiled, “and the pay out?”

“Our reward will be … great.”

“Good. For hearth and home.”

“For hearth and home.”

*************************

Libertus scowled, picking up another strong branch for their camp fire. They were only two days drive outside Insomnia and Libertus was glad, the little brat of a prince they were escorting was really getting on his nerves.

He wouldn’t eat, he wouldn’t talk, all he did was cower and flinch, as if they were the ones who were going to hurt him, as if they were damned enemy. He knew how Insomnian’s thought, he had lived in their stupid city for two years now, anything from Galahd was uncivilised and savage. As if the magic of the desert was somehow lesser or impure in comparison to those conceited rock worshiping assholes.

Oh the king hadn’t seemed too bad back when they had been fighting in Galahd, before they’d made their way back to Insomnia, but he’d rolled over like a yellow bellied dog once they’d returned to the capital. Obviously the the men and women he had bound to him in a desperate bid to save the outlying region weren’t worth defending, or fighting for.

Nifleheim had hunted down the Ulrics and anyone associated with them with prejudice during the war, and he hadn’t forgot how Regis had sheltered them, had protected them until they were ready to stand on their own two feet. But in that war Regis had pitted himself against Nifleheim for them, had stood between them and death, because even though everyone knew that once Nyx’s father died it would be Nyx who led the pack, the elder Ulric died too soon. Nyx hadn’t had a proper handle on his magic, he needed more practice, he wasn’t a reliable leader.

And then Regis had stepped in.

It was Regis who had found them, it was Regis who hunted down the tattered remains of their pack and brought them together again, who had found new members for them to accept, who needed them as much as they were needed and it had been Regis who had stood between them and death, over and over again.

But once they had gotten to Insomnia, it had been Regis who had abandoned them. Regis who had thrown them into the shittiest corner of the city, who never had time for any of them. And he knew Regis was king of more than just them, that he had many people vying for his time, who needed his attention, but he had never even appointed a leader for them to be able to go to them, to make their needs known.

He had abandoned them.

And that, Libertus found he could not forgive.

Crowe might be able to forgive it, but Crowe was a witch, and she was new to pack. Which meant she was used to being left hung out to dry and she hadn’t been with them long enough to know that pack didn’t abandon each other, ever, not in her heart and soul.

Nyx might be able to, it was his responsibilities that Regis took up upon himself, and he saw all of this as Regis obviously stepping back once they had made it back to relative safety was a signal that he was surrendering his position as alpha to Nyx, without a fight, as he should. The King might rule Lucis, but all the regions had their own individual leaders, specifically in Galahd, the Ulrics, and even if they had lost their lands, their strength, loyalties and magics should still be respected. But Nyx still hadn’t been ready, goddamnit and it had taken a lot of practice, trial and error for them to get as good as they had with their magic. For Nyx to figure out how to pass the gift on, to figure out who he could pass the gift to.

But he just couldn’t do it. Regis had come into their lives when they had needed him the most, had taught them to trust him, to turn to him. And then, once they had, he hadn’t been there.

It was enough to make him want to tear something to pieces.

But Regis still trusted them. And that was something he really couldn’t wrap his head around. Because even though the Amicitia was in his ear whispering over and over again to just stick Drautos in charge, because of course he would push for someone from Cavaugh, from his region, to be their leader, as if that would make them any less savage, Regis was still leaning towards them.

It was Nyx and Crowe who had been sent on the top secret mission that no-one seemed to know anything about, and hadn’t that just pissed Drautos off something cruel, because Drautos always knew exactly what was going on, but this time all he had was speculation. When he had sent two teams to protect his son, a little excessive as far as Libertus was concerned, Drautos and Lazarus had been sent off, a given, but he had picked Acnae, who while not strong in magic was experienced, and him. It was well known, if Crowe was Nyx’s left hand, Libertus was his right.

Libertus sighed, picking up one last branch before deciding to call it quits. What he had picked up would just have to do and if Drautos didn’t like it he could go and find his own damned firewood. In the dark.

As he passed a group of bloodhorns he resisted the urge to sigh in relief. Even though Nyx had been abundantly clear, that he was to never use the gifts he had been given unless he was sure he would die if he didn’t, he couldn’t help but use them to cheat in little ways like this. The ability to hide his scent, to move so silently he didn’t make a sound, even as a bulky, heavyset man, was invaluable. Especially when hunting, or trying to avoid being hunted.

Once he was fully in the clear, he looked up at the sky and muttered a curse, the sun would be setting soon and while he probably could avoid daemons Ulric magic was never as certain with those cursed creatures. Not like Lucian magic which seemed to be made to take those things on. He would have to hurry up.

As he approached the haven he looked up at the rocky outcrops that surrounded them and smiled. He had spent the last two years trying to get the drop on Acnae, he hadn’t managed it yet, but this would definitely work. People were always relaxed at havens, and if he left the firewood just there it wouldn’t weigh him down. He crept up silently along the ridge, shamelessly abusing the powers he had been gifted with until the haven below came into view.

“And now young prince, you have no-one left to hide behind,” Drautos’ voice echoed horrifically as Acnae’s perforated body slumped sickeningly to the ground and Prince Noctis tried to drag himself away.

Oh Gods, Drautos was going to kill the prince.

Oh Gods, Drautos was a traitor.

Before Libertus was quite aware of what had happened his blade was in Drautos’ neck and he had warped down to it, plunging the dagger into the other man’s spine, killing him instantly. Libertus looked on in shock as the body slumped to the ground, unable to comprehend that the man who would almost certainly become their commander had just tried to kill the prince, a kid, who hadn’t even seen his tenth birthday.

Oh shit, the kid had a right to be scared. He had a reason to flinch when anyone came close, to cling to his father like the world was going to end if he was ever taken away.

Those forget-me-not blues were staring at him wide-eyed, “but you don’t even like me.”

Libertus’ eyes bulged, didn’t like, what the fuck?

“I don’t like plenty of people, that doesn’t mean I go around killing them, or just letting them die. And you’re just a kid.”

Noctis’ eyes grew even wider, as if he honestly hadn’t considered the possibility that someone might not like him and still manage to be a decent human being. Which wasn’t entirely fair, considering the circumstances, but still.

Libertus shook his head, now was not the time for distractions, “forget that, where’s Lazarus?”

Noctis was shaking visibly now, “Drautos sent him away, told him to look for you.”

Libertus nodded, “Lazarus and Drautos were close, I’m not sure we can trust him, I’m packing some stuff and we’re leaving, it’s safer out there than here,” he was already putting away necessary items, lighter, food, camp stove, sleeping bags, he wasn’t bothering with the tent, it would take too long. As precious seconds ticked by Libertus’ breathing grew heavier, he couldn’t afford to fight Lazarus, he couldn’t beat Lazarus in a fight, hell the only reason he had been able to take out Drautos was because he had been fucking lucky and Drautos had always been bad at dealing with surprise attacks, probably why he had tried to get Libertus as far away as possible, fewer wild cards. Even though that had obviously backfired spectacularly.

And then just as he had been about to close the pack the sound of footsteps reached his ears, even over the pounding of the blood in his veins. Libertus closed his eyes, it was too late to run, Lazarus had always been a sneaky fucker, he was too close now.

His voice rose up from the foot of the rock they were on, and he did with it, “hey Captain, sorry but I couldn’t find Ostium, we should just get out of here, we can totally pin it all on him- Ostium.”

Libertus opened his eyes, if he didn’t use it he was dead. And so was the kid behind him.

So as Lazarus cocked his arm back to throw, a mad smile on his face, Libertus took a deep breath, reached for the beast inside and shifted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudo and comments are love and make all the plotbunnies go, so pretty please?


	6. Safe!

They had only been making their way through the forests of Tenebrae for a few days and already the children were exhausted. Ravus made a brave show of strength, but when he asked about the route they would be taking to get to Insomnia it was obvious he wanted a short journey.

“Nyx, how are we going to get to Lucis?”

The glaive stretched out and sighed, “we’ve almost made our way through the forests of Tenebrae, we’ll use the land bridge and cross over through Galahd into Lucis and then make our way down through Cleigne into the other regions and finally into Insomnia.”

Ravus’ shoulders slumped and Luna did her best not to huff in protest.

“Couldn’t we go through Accordo?” they asked.

Crowe shook her head vigorously, “no, it’s imperative that we stay away from cities and other population centres. Luckily for us, Galahd is almost completely deserted. There are a few bases that Nifleheim has built there, to make sure we don’t invade again, but that should be all.”

“And we’re going to do the whole journey on foot?” Luna asked plaintively.

“Not necessarily, but we have to get to Galahd quickly if that’s the case. King Regis is creating a distraction as we speak, it’s supposed to keep the army tied up and too busy to look for us.”

Ravus looked at the two smirking glaives skeptically, “and you think that will work?”

Crowe’s grin widened, “Nifleheim is willing to spend a lot of resources to ensure they have the Oracle at their disposal, but they aren’t willing to risk all the gains they’ve made in Lucis over the last three hundred years.”

“If it was that easy why the hell has Lucis been loosing these past three hundred years?”

Nyx shrugged, “it hasn’t been as much of a once sided massacre as you seem to think, Nifleheim has spent a lot of time and energy to always ensure that we’re on the defensive, especially since they’ve begun phasing out human soldiers and replacing them with MTs. We might not be able to hold defensive positions very well due to their numbers, but MTs are too stupid and too easily bypassed and we’re too good at sabotage for them to do it either.”

Crowe nodded, “ultimately the glaive was formed so that we would be able to get any civilians out of a battlefield before retreating ourselves and then attacking from another angle. It’s worked pretty well for us so far.”

But Nyx frowned, “I’m worried we might be becoming predictable.”

“Then bring it up with the King once we get back to the capital,” the younger glaive rolled her eyes.

“You think he’ll listen to me?” Nyx raised an eyebrow, “I know a lot of the glaive seem to think my name means something but we lost Galahd, remember?”

Crowe shrugged, “the Scientias lost almost all of Cleigne and one of them still advises the King doesn’t he?”

“That’s different,” he scowled, picking up Luna and letting her ride piggyback again after she stumbled, “the Scientias were supposed to advise the king, they don’t need their lands for that, my family swore to defend Galahd and ensure the front remained defended, we failed. He shouldn’t be trusting me anymore than he would any other glaive. Not until I’ve proven myself.”

Crowe shot a sideways glance at Ravus, who had long since zoned out of the conversation, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, and muttered, “Ulrics and their damned honour.”

***********************

They had had to walk even into the night to get to the nearest haven and when the children had gone to sleep, almost immediately now that it was safe enough, Crowe turned to Nyx, “we can’t do this over and over. The adrenaline has pushed them this far, but it won’t keep them going.”

Nyx nodded, “I’m going hunting.”

“Are you mad?” Crowe hissed, “Nifleheim will have patrols out by now, if they figure out what you are they’ll burn the whole damned forest.”

“Then I guess I’ll just not have to be seen,” he grinned, “now, how much cash have you got? And where is the nearest chocobo rental?”

“Nyx that isn’t going to work, we only have two chocobos.”

But he just shrugged, “Ravus can ride mine and you’ll ride double with Luna, it’s not like she weighs anything. I’ll run alongside.”

“That is beyond dangerous Nyx!”

“I have your glamour charm, with it I just look like a stupid ass dog.”

“And that won’t matter if you don’t move like a dog!”

It was amazing the amount of anger and vitriol she was managing to pour into her voice considering it never rose above a whisper.

“This is still the best chance we’ve got. I’m going.”

“Fine,” the young woman spat, shoving the money angrily into his chest and Nyx just smiled before leaving the safety of the haven.

As he began his journey to the nearby train station he shifted into his wolf form. Libertus had once told him that when he shifted he had to reach for the wolf inside him, much like he had to reach for Lucian magic to warp or cast spells, but for Nyx it had always been such an easy thing to do, like shrugging into a well worn jacket. That was the difference between someone who was born with the gift and someone who was given it, he supposed.

Nyx had originally tried to give everyone in his small pack the gift, but Crowe had been unable to receive it. While the Galahdian magic was compatible enough with Lucian forms, enough so to dwell in the same body, it was not so with Crowe’s form of magic, because Crowe was a witch, blessed with what was sometimes called Iftrit’s magic or in some fanatical circles considered to possess the magic of the Scourge. And while it may have been compatible with Lucian magic, most magics were, it was not so with any other. Witches were a dying people, they could not defend themselves from the Scourge any more than anyone else, but they also could not suffer the magic of the Oracle, hence their magic being considered tainted or evil.

Crowe specifically could create glamours, when people looked at her they saw what she wanted them to see. She could even attach them to various charms, but once the glamour was attached it was set, the image could not be changed. She had given one of these charms to Nyx, many years ago, one that made him appear to be a dog, rather than the wolf he was, but it was not as safe a disguise as one might first think. Nyx’s wolf form was an ashen brown beast, bigger than it had any right to be, and due to the natural magics of the Ulric line, he was too strong and too quick for anyone to believe he was a normal dog. Hence the rule about not shifting, but in the middle of the night, in the forests of Tenebrae where his enemies would only ever catch a glimpse of him, when the movements of shadows were daemons and the rustle of leaves could hide anything? It would be fine, he would stick to his shadows, the map Crowe had rolled out once the children were asleep told them they were only a stones throw away from the train station, he would run down there, pay for as many days as he could and then be back before the sun rose.

Nyx trotted through the deserted station, avoiding the lights keeping the daemons at bay. He picked a path to the bins and transformed back into human form there, if there was one thing that sucked about his wolf form it was that he didn’t have opposable thumbs. Striding out to the chocobo rental, casual as you please and without a care in the world he rented them out for the full five days and paid the money.

He heard a shifting sound to his left and flicked his eyes over to see an old homeless man with a yellow toothed grin lying on a wooden bench, under a picture of him and Crowe. Damn, Nifleheim was organised, thirty thousand gil to bring them in, dead or alive, a few grand for any information about the two of them, not bad.

He turned and began to walk up to the old man with a friendly smile, “hello friend I hope we can … come to an agreement about the fact that I was never here.”

The old man, no fool, smiled hurriedly and put his hands up, “of course, of course, I saw nothing, nothing at all.”

If he had been anyone else, the old man may have gotten lucky, but even from here, Nyx could scent the lie, the sickly sweet smell of false reassurance. Nyx’s smile turned predatory and he leapt for the man’s throat, transforming mid way through.

Luckily for him the old man was slow, didn’t react very quickly and all it took was for him to clamp down his jaws around the old man’s throat and a quick shake and the old man was dead. He dragged him back with him into the forrest, trying to make this look as much like a large predator attack as possible. Once they were a few hundred feet back into the forrest he found a relatively clear patch of earth and tore into the body, letting blood and viscera go flying.

He looked down at the mangled corpse thoughtfully before tearing one large chunk out of the dead man’s face and began running back to the haven. With any luck the braver or more desperate scavengers would find the corpse before dawn and hopefully by the time the authorities followed the blood trail all the way to the body all that would be left would be a skeleton, picked clean and half buried in the bushes.

***********************

Luna stumbled blindly out of the tent some time in the morning. All she knew was that it was bright and too early to be humane, but Crowe had woken both her and Ravus and told her that breakfast was ready and that they had to get moving. Which was true, but she really could have used another hour of sleep. She wordlessly accepted the bowl Crowe had thrust into her hands and began eating blindly. It was only five minutes later, to her embarrassment, that she realised there were only three of them sitting and eating.

“Where’s Nyx?” she asked puzzled.

Crowe sighed and jerked her head in the direction of a massive dog sleeping at the edge of the haven.

“How come he still gets to sleep?” Ravus asked grumpily.

“Because he only came back two hours ago,” Crowe rejoined without missing a beat.

“How is he doing that?” Luna asked amazed, she had never heard of shapeshifting magic before, except for toad, but Crowe had taught her that that was more of a curse than a spell.

“It’s a bloodline magic, kind of like your Oracle powers or the magics of the Line of Lucis,” Crowe shrugged.

The siblings exchanged a glance, curiousity peaked, but nodded, now was not the time to push in any case. They ate the rest of their breakfast in silence before packing up the camp. Having let Nyx sleep for as long as she could Crowe finally approached him, hesitating when he growled and cracked a yellow eye open to glare at her. Nyx, by nature, was easygoing and he, for the most part, let her and Libertus run around and do as they like, but when he was half asleep in his wolf form, instincts were out in full force and she was never more aware of the fact that he was her alpha.

“The kids are ready to go, we have to get going,” she whispered in explanation and received a huff, which knowing Nyx carried both annoyance and acknowledgement. The wolf clambered to his feet and lumbered over to the packed up camping gear, placing it back into the arsenal, it was a little something Regis had added into his part of the arsenal when the King expanded it before they left Fenestala.

“Nyx I’m calling the chocobos,” Crowe called out, and Nyx immediately shifted back into human form, that whistle was hell on his ears when he was in human form, when he was a wolf it was bloody unbearable.

“We have chocobos?” Ravus pressed.

“Yeah, I went down to the train station during the night. Rented some out.”

Luckily for them they barely had to wait for the chocobos to arrive, one was a natural yellow colour, Crowe’s, the other was a terrifying bright red.

“Luna, you’re with me,” Crowe smiled, swinging herself up into the saddle of her bird, “Ravus, that one’s yours.”

Ravus just sighed and hauled himself up into the saddle, biting the bullet so to speak.

“Well then, shall we?” Nyx asked, switching forms again and loping out of the haven.

It would take four days of hard riding through the wilderness, and without Regis ensuring their food and water supplies remained high they would have been screwed but on the fifth day of riding, just a little after midday they finally reached the border.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure there wasn't actually a chocobo rent post thingy at Tenebrae, oh well there is now.


	7. Home!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final leg of the journey for the Nox Fleuret siblings

They made it through Galahd and then Cleigne easily enough, but that in itself had made both glaives suspicious. Ever since Galahd had fallen there had always been a handful of those annoying flying bases set up in the region. The fact that there had been none, not even on the border, that they had been able to simply ride through the region unmolested had made them worry. It had told them a lot about the way the war was going, if Nifleheim was willing to let such a hard won region undefended they were panicking or loosing, either way it was both good news and bad news. Good news because that meant that Lucis now had the upper hand, bad news because if the occupied territories weren’t occupied there was a war zone, and they were almost sure to get caught up in the middle of it.

Once they passed Lestallum, it became obvious that they were right, they hit a real war zone, one so bad it reminded the two glaives of Galahd years ago when they had just been kids themselves. Nyx had tried to scout out a relatively safe way for them to sneak though to the Lucian line, Gods he had tried, but it seemed that while the surprise attack had pushed the Niffs as far back as the border between Leide and Duscae Nifleheim had recouped and were now making them pay for every inch they could steal back in blood. Bases had been set up everywhere and while the hunters were harrying them and wearing them down wonderfully from what the group could tell, the Lucian army still hadn’t broken through on the other side. Lestallum itself had only remained unmolested by Nifleheim so far because Titan hadn’t liked the airships they had flown and protested their flying anywhere near the Meteor.

Violently. 

So violently in fact that he had caused more than a few fortress level airships to crash and burn and Nifleheim had a large black spot on their maps with a radius as far as Titan could throw.

And considering that it was Titan … well.

Lucis had truly done all they could to turn the aid of the gods, even ones that weren’t overtly friendly, to their advantage, and it showed. Moral was also higher than it had been in at least a generation, according hunters they met the Wall was expanding every day and general sentiment was that if they could just have the Wall expand to include them then prosperity and safety would follow. One of the older ones had even said that this had obviously been King Regis’ plan from the start, that he hadn’t forgotten the way that King Mors had been forced to pull back the Wall, to abandon the outlying territories and that ever since he had been building up the military in preparation for this offensive.

Both Crowe and Nyx had thought that while it was a nice story, good for moral and to inspire the loyalty of the masses to the king, they were far more inclined to believe that rather than creating any long term master plan, Regis had seen an opportunity and capitalised on it. Ruthlessly.

Which in itself wasn’t bad, but it didn’t have the feel of a good fairytale. So the two glaives had just exchanged glances and kept silent, not even bothering to share their logic with the Nox Fleurets. The children could make their own decision regarding the king, they would meet him again soon enough.

“Is there a way through the enemy lines?” Luna had asked a group of hunters they had stumbled upon hopefully, and Nyx startled as if she had shot him, making frantic eyes at the girl to get her to be quite.

“Not that we know of little lady, and we’ve been keeping a pretty good eye on them too,” one of the hunters replied.

Luna sighed sadly, “it’s just that, we have some really important information that the king needs to here as soon as possible. Or at least someone in the army.”

One of the older ones shook their head, “the only time the line ever breaks is when the Immortal goes hunting. But that only lasts a little while, a few hours tops.”

Crowe leaned forward, interested, “any way to tell where he’s gonna strike next?”

“You think we would be stuck here if there was?” he snorted, “in any case, I don’t think he’s gonna be out again for a while. He struck twice in two days just recently and again the night before last.”

“But he’s been hitting harder and more often lately,” one of the younger ones piqued up, so Nyx finally got involved.

“Can you show me where he’s been hitting?”

The old man sighed and pulled out the map he had, “here, here and here. Then the week before that it was down here and then up there,” he said pointing up and down the line at the bases, in a random pattern and neither Nyx nor Ravus could fathom what sort of plan the Marshal had, but both Crowe and Luna breathed in understanding almost immediately.

Luna turned her big luminous eyes on the hunters, “don’t freak out?”

“Why would we freak out?” the old one glared suspiciously.

Crowe pointed at the map, “I guess the rumours are true after all, MTs are weaker where Lucian magic is naturally strong. He’s going after bases which are on naturally magically fertile grounds, where Eos’ veins meet, it makes him stronger and it makes his enemy weaker. It makes sense.”

“You’re a witch,” the old man gasped, making the sign of the six in defence and turned to Nyx, “how can you let a child travel with a witch, they bring bad luck I tell you.”

“A witch?” a few of the younger ones asked.

Crowe shrugged, “people who have affinities for magics but aren’t part of a bloodline. Some are good with elements, others make potions or charms, that sort of thing. Some witches have been known to create bloodlines, if the family survives long enough and accumulates enough magic. The one thing we all have in common though, is that we can sense Eos’ magic, its lifeblood.”

“Witches aren’t to be trusted,” the old man scowled, eying them suspiciously.

Crowe just shrugged, and Nyx, ignoring the man altogether, asked, “is there anywhere else he hasn’t hit yet?”

Crowe just frowned and pointed to a place on the map that was relatively far away, “here, then there’s a thick one here, but that’s way too far south, and a really thin one, almost nonexistent, here,” she was pointing almost a stone’s throw away.

“You think it’s going to be that one don’t you,” Ravus sighed, nodding at Crowe’s still extended finger.

“Do you think he’ll hit tonight?” Luna asked curiously, leaning over the other three.

“Either tonight or tomorrow,” Nyx nodded, “either way, I think we should get as close as we can and get ready to dash across once we hear a commotion.”

Ravus grinned, “I cannot wait to sleep in a proper bed.”

“Don’t count your chocobos yet,” Nyx huffed, “this’ll probably be the most difficult part. Are you guys coming with?”

“With a witch, are you insane?” the old hunter spat.

Nyx just shrugged, as if to say your loss, before turning away, “come on, we have to get going.”

Trekking through Duscae was a slow process, especially as the group wished to remain out of sight, they spent a lot of time dragging themselves through muddy ground under the trees and tall bushes, and they often had to stop, freezing to avoid detection from either MT boots on the ground or the occasional airships flying over head.

Both Nyx and Crowe, seeing no other way, decided to take a risk. They were crossing the enemy line by crawling along side the blockade walls, their only cover being the bushes that surrounded the base. Like most of Nifleheim’s blockades it was in a well chosen location, it wasn’t on a road, but there were paths through to Duscae, big enough to bring in a contingent and wreak havoc on the surrounding bases. Anywhere there weren’t thick bushes there were searchlights lighting the areas up and guns trained, just waiting for movement, they’d seen what had happened to a herd of garula making their way to the lakes and they had no intention of having the same thing happen to them.

While Nyx was normally the one who gave the warnings, this time it was Crowe, “if you think someone sees you, even for a second, you freeze, you don’t make a noise and you try and stay as calm as possible. I’ve glamoured us all up to the gills, and MTs are stupid, so they shouldn’t see you unless you move. Move, and I won’t wait for the MTs to kill you, I’ll do it myself and it will be painful.”

The Nox Fleuret siblings had looked up at her with wide eyes properly terrified of her for the first time.

Nyx frowned looking between the barricade and the Wall, which was only a few hundred feet away from them, the hunters had been right, the king really had been increasing the Wall, relentlessly, “we’re not going to be able to go past the barricade for a while. The majority of their eyes are focused on the no man’s land, we cross it when there’s a successful attack on the base and not before.”

They crawled through the bushes right up to the edge of the no man’s land, ready to run at a moments notice. But when the attack finally came there was nothing subtle about it, there were no shadows melting out of the night to attack the base, coming out of nowhere and disappearing back into the ether just as quickly. The signal for the attack was a thundaga quintcast fully unleashed upon the base, absolutely decimating the large mechanical armours, the only part of the military still run by flesh and blood human beings, as well as a few of the lights, giving Lucis all the cover they needed to launch their attack.

“Holy Ramuh,” Lunafreya whispered, wide eyed.

“That wasn’t Ramuh, kid, that was King Regis in a bad mood,” Nyx snorted. The Lucians hadn’t quite reached the walls of the barrier and Nyx may not have had Crowe’s talent with elemental magic but he knew that the King was getting ready to throw another thunder spell out over the field, he could feel the electricity gathering in the air.

Crowe grimaced, “this isn’t good. He shouldn’t be using so much magic. The amount of mana in that cast alone was obscene, and he’s strengthening and expanding the Wall too? I can even feel Eos’ vein widening here. It’s reckless.”

“Do we go now?” Luna asked, up until now all of this had felt a little like a dream, but now she was so close to safety, to escaping Nifleheim, she hadn’t known he heart could beat that fast.

“No,” Nyx refuted, “not until we know they’re too busy to shoot at us.”

The barricade gates opened, letting out what few mechs they had left as well as a full platoon of MTs. There were also snipers on the wall, but the King had obviously brought glaive members because small shields and elemental spells were going flashing to life all over the place. Two high grade explosive charges later and the gates had been blasted open, the vast majority of the forces sent outside the battlements to face the Lucians were dead while most of the Lucians were huddled together in groups under thick wall magic.

The four could clearly see Cor Leonis raise his katana and lead the charge through the gates up into the blockade.

“They’re trashing everything,” Crowe whistled in admiration as three of the mounted gun turrets facing the Lucian line toppled down over the ramparts, “it’s like a full on pub brawl in there.”

“We go now?” Ravus asked, looking rather ill as an MT sniper was blasted off the fortifications and smashed onto the hard ground.

Crowe turned to Nyx, who nodded sharply and grabbed Lunafreya by the arm, “we go now.”

For all that the no man’s land was only two hundred or so feet of flat land before it dipped down into a sharp incline it was a mad dash to freedom. They could hear a few stray shots come far to close to them for comfort and as Nyx looked back he could see a troop of MTs make their way out of the blockade while the Lucians were too busy fighting on the ramparts.

“Axemen and riflemen,” Crowe snapped and Nyx swore, a typical defeat and subdue unit.

“If they start firing on us I’ll handle the MTs, you take them to safety,” Nyx threw back, still dragging Luna along behind him, the poor girl was exhausted and it showed.

“No,” Ravus interrupted, “I’ll take Luna to safety, you and Crowe handle the troops.”

If the situation had been any less desperate Nyx would have smiled, feeling just a little proud that the kid he had been training was finally shaping up, but they didn’t have time for that so he just nodded, “right.”

They could hear the guns cocking behind them, almost ready to fire, only a few more steps and they would be safe.

Luna stumbled.

Nyx’s heart stopped, Luna stumbled, he could feel it, he looked back, she was going to land flat on her face, then that would trip the rest of them up and they would all be dead. 

So he tapped into his powers, as the little girl was in mid air he pulled her forward, in front of him, and switched his grip to the back of her neck, then he swung her forward and pushed her feet first down the incline, hoping her cloak would be enough to protect her. Then he jumped down, not even half a second behind her, but long enough to see Ravus and Crowe dive over the ridge and roll down behind him, avoiding bullet fire by only a hair.

The incline was steep, and bare having been cleared of all wildlife both to increase visibility and to make a clear path for the Lucian forces to move to and from their base. Nyx sighed, he wasn’t going to be able to stop in time, so he braced himself for impact with the Wall hoping he wouldn’t break any bones.

But the impact never came, instead he rolled forward and came to a natural halt. He looked up to see what the hell was going on only to see the full force of the Armiger staring them right in the face. Crowe must of done something because he could feel the glamours dissipating, all except his dog glamour which was still sleeping, attached to one of the beads in his hair.

“Well Majesty, this wasn’t the kind of welcome home I was expecting,” he blinked thoughtlessly.

The crystalline blades shattered and disappeared instantly, “Nyx Ulric?” came the voice of the King, who was sitting on the ground leaning against his car, ringed hand held out and shaking, utterly exhausted.

“Yes your Majesty,” the glaive smiled, “mission accomplished, as promised.”

“I’m glad.” 

He made a gesture and the medics began swarming them immediately, leading them to a makeshift medical station in the back of a few trucks parked together where they had cots waiting. Nyx, Ravus and Luna all collapsed into their own beds, too fatigued to bother with cleaning up, but Crowe wasn’t lying down.

Nyx made a questioning noise and Crowe patted him on the arm, “I’ve got to see to something, I’ll be back soon,” and left the truck.

Crowe walked slowly back over to the king, sliding down the car to sit next to him, “you’re pushing yourself too hard.”

“We all have our duties I’m afraid.”

The young woman sighed, “I met the Oracle’s messenger, Gentiana. She showed me something that might help.”

Regis turned to face her, eyebrow raised in surprise, but he didn’t say anything, letting her continue at her own pace. She took his hand in hers and transferred some of her magical energy to him. In the state she was in she didn’t have much to spare, but it was enough to return some colour to the King’s cheeks and to steady his breathing.

“Thank you,” he said sincerely, once he had gotten over the shock and the influx of energy.

Crowe shrugged, embarrassed, and muttered, “you might want to find a few more witches, we may not be as powerful but we aren’t useless.”

The King’s lips flickered up into a smile, “my dear, I don’t think you’ve ever been useless, not for a day in your life.”

Crowe looked at him in surprise and the older man smiled gently, “you should go get some rest, you’ve earned it, after all.”


	8. Reuinions

When the group of four woke up the next morning they found they had been moved from the edge of the Wall to the Norduscaen Valley. They exited the medical tent they had been moved into to hear Regis arguing quietly with his Shield.

“I told you before Clarus, if he was successful in his mission he would get the position,” Regis said mildly.

“Regis, he’s too young, he’s only twenty. For Astrals sake, no-one isn’t saying he’s a good glaive, hell I’m all for making him the lieutenant, but he doesn’t have the experience to lead the whole army.”

“Clarus, may I remind you that the vast majority of the Kingsglaive is made up of Galahdian refugees.”

“Yes Regis, fine then don’t choose Drautos, choose someone else, Acnae maybe, she’s smart and she’s experienced.”

Regis shook his head, turning something over in his hand, “That wasn’t my point. Do you know why I let the glaive organise themselves?”

Clarus huffed, “not really.”

“Galahdians have an authority problem.” 

Nyx and Crowe both stiffened wary of a possible insult.

“They don’t kneel, and they don’t surrender. They weren’t ever just going to follow a leader because I put them in charge. Most of them haven’t met me, they don’t know me, at best they would be indifferent to anyone I put in charge, at worst they would outright disobey. So I put them together, let them train and then sent them out on a few missions. So that they could work out for themselves who the Alpha was.”

“And you think they chose Ulric,” Clarus stated sceptically.

“Not all of them. Some of them thought the same thing you did, that he was too young, too inexperienced, so they chose Drautos.”

The glaives exchanged a glance, a little surprised at how well Regis knew the way they thought.

“But why the hell did so many of them choose Ulric, it doesn’t make sense,” exasperation permeated through the Shield’s tone.

“Clarus, when I was twenty, my father gave me a command and told me to go and defend my people. That command followed me for three reasons, my name, my upbringing and my reputation. Before the fall the Ulrics had held Galahd for as long as my family has ruled Lucis, the glaive turned to him for the same three reasons.”

Clarus sighed and leaned back, still not entirely satisfied, “I still argue that they aren’t the same thing, but fine, I can tell I’m not going to win this one. But you get to be the one who explains to the Council why a twenty year old, wet behind the ears kid is the one who is in charge of the whole Kingsglaive.”

“He’s proven his worth and his skill, several times over,” Regis said, his tone taking on a sharp edge, losing his patience for the first time, “and the Council has failed to do so enough times that I am entirely justified in ignoring them.”

“And on that I agree with you wholeheartedly,” Clarus held his hands up, “but I still refuse to be the one who deals with their shit. Especially when it’s your pigheadedness which is going to cause them to have simultaneous conniptions.”

“Fine then, I’ll handle them,” Regis shrugged, lifting his voice to address his eavesdroppers, “Sir Ulric, Sir Altius, if you could be so kind?”

The glaives both stiffened, but they straightened up and stepped forward, up to the King, the Nox Fleurets trailing after them curiously.

“Your Majesty,” they forced out in sync, through numb lips.

“Oh don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. I wanted to give you these,” the King smiled holding out the badge which had been designed to designate the captain of the Kingsglaive to Nyx, who looked at him in shock.

“Thank you, your Majesty,” the younger man smiled, taking it and pinning it to his jacket, stepping back with a respectful bow.

“And you, Sir Altius, I would have you be the lieutenant,” he held out another badge.

“Really?” she asked, voice high with incredulity. She was even younger than Nyx, at eighteen, it was inconceivable to her, that she would be given the honour, especially if Nyx’s appointment was as controversial a pick as the debate the King and his Shield had indicated. But the King inclined his head gracefully and Crowe just decided not to question it, so she took the badge and stepped back with a bow of her own.

“Now then, how about go find you all something to eat,” the King said rising slowly out of his chair, joints creaking. He was wearing a knee brace, that was new.

“Are you alright, King Regis?” Luna fussed, rushing over to his side.

“I’ll be fine my dear,” he replied reassuringly, “It’s the cost of magic, wholly unavoidable I’m afraid.”

“Will you be alright, if you expand the Wall to cover all of Lucis?” Ravus asked, grudgingly worried, after all if the Wall fell, Lunafreya would no longer be safe and then this whole venture would have been for nothing.

Regis just smiled as he began hobbling in what must have been the direction of the food, everyone else following him, “I will be alright because I must. And that’s really all there is to it.”

“I can help a little if you need, Majesty,” Crowe offered. The Wall was the one barrier that Nifleheim could never break through, it was imperative that it not fall, and while she may not have studied the history of the Lucian royal family very extensively at all even she knew that the Kings of Lucis had been dying younger and younger, King Mors hadn’t lived to see sixty five and if Regis sheltered the whole of Lucis using only his own power there was no guarantee that he would survive to see his fiftieth birthday. Considering that that would leave the prince crowned at 20, it was worrying.

“Thank you Sir Altius, I fear that it may become a necessary measure to ensure the Wall remains strong. But ultimately you are right, I shall have to have the Council get in touch with all the known natural magic users in the country. You never know, it may even change a few opinions.”

Crowe raised an eyebrow, a little shocked that the King had such a positive outlook on things, especially an outlook that had been prevalent for centuries, since the fall of Solheim in fact.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” she tried to be diplomatic.

A smile twitched on Regis’ lips, “you would be surprised how liberal the younger generation is. Even when it comes to immigrants, it’s really only people over fifty who have an issue. And the military.”

“That’s because you created the Kingsglaive Regis, they’re all slighted about how the King trusted foreigners over them,” Clarus snorted.

“Well, they weren’t there for the first Incursion of Galahd,” the King muttered under his breath.

“No, but I was,” Cor’s deep voice rumbled, as he popped out of nowhere, startling everyone except Regis and Clarus, who were far too used to their younger friend wandering in out of the blue.

“Honestly,” Regis huffed, shooting a sideways glance at Nyx, “the way your father treated me, you would have thought I was the Nif General.”

“Really?” Nyx thought, interested, “I remember very clearly that my father told me you could be trusted.”

“I saved his life at least five times, do know what he said?” the King demanded with narrowed eyes.

“No,” Nyx leaned forward eagerly, he hadn’t heard stories of his father in years, “what did he say?”

“He said, and I quote; ‘we’ve been having wonderful weather lately, Ramuh must be siding with us in this war’, who the hell mistakes thunder magic for fortunate weather!”

“And what does it say about you, that you liked the man,” Cor chimed in. Nyx tried to hold it in as he leaned against the doorframe of the mess hall, but after a snort escaped him he broke into loud peels of laugher and after a moment Crowe and Luna joined in giggling helplessly as Clarus and Cor exchanging grins. Even King Regis, himself, saw the humour and smiled at the memory.

“So what did you do?” Nyx asked once they had all finally gotten themselves breakfast and sat down.

Regis grinned sharp and shark-like, “the next time he tried it I replied that I was glad that he had recognised me as the God I was and that if he was going to worship me properly he should bring me offerings of proper spicy meat skewers instead of the rations we were on.”

“How quickly did that shut him up?” Crowe’s eyes sparkled.

Regis sighed around a mouthful of toast, and after swallowing answered “he pointed out that I could not possibly be Ramuh as my beard was nowhere near impressive enough.”

“So what did you do?” Luna pressed, entirely hooked.

“I hit him with a weak thunder and asked him if he thought that was Ramuh too. He tried to be stubborn, but I just kept hitting him with harder and harder shocks until he finally said thanks,” he wiped his beard with the napkin lying next to his plate, “it was a very grudging apology yes, but I still got one, so it counted as a victory in my books.”

 

The conversation continued, everyone chiming in with a funny story as they went around the table until they had finished their meal and had to attend to their own separate duties.

***************************

It hadn’t taken them long to reach Insomnia, especially considering the roads and highways were now almost completely safe for them to use. Ravus was convinced that nothing would be completely safe anymore, but for the first time since they had left the manor the roads were safer than the wilderness, which was a pleasant change of pace. The fact that Regis had gunned the Regalia to travel almost as fast as it could and didn’t stop for anything less than the essentials meant that they reached the crown city very quickly.

In fact the part of their trip that had felt the longest was when they had reached the city again, where speed limits were enforced, there were a lot of people using the road and they were surrounded by people who all had their own business to attend to.

Luna looked around with wide eyes and whispered in awe, “Ravus I think there are more people here than in all of Tenebrae.”

Regis smiled and looked at them from the rearview mirror, “last time we did a census there were more people in Insomnia than in Altissia and Gralea combined.”

Ravus blinked in shock, “how is that possible, what do you do for food?”

“Well,” Regis shrugged, “we import from all over. Altissian pirates especially, once everywhere else was taken over by the Nifs.”

The rest of the ride was rather quiet and before long they were rolling up to the steps of the citadel where they saw a Advisor Scientia waiting to greet them.

“Your Majesty!” he called out in greeting, before raising an eyebrow, “and the Nox Fleuret siblings. I do hope you will feel welcome here.”

Regis smiled as he got out of the car, Ravus and Luna had been so eager to stretch their legs and explore their surroundings they had barely waited for the car to stop, but they answered politely when they were greeted formally by a man they had never seen or heard of before.

“Ventus! It’s good to see you again. How has Noct been?”

As pity and sadness flashed across his advisor’s face Regis felt the world become cold and grey.

“I’m sorry your Majesty, but Prince Noctis hasn’t returned to Insomnia as of yet.”

As Ventus uttered the dreaded words Regis’ hands began to shake and his eyes widened. He his son’s name escaping his voice in a strangled moan and clutched at the Regalia to prevent himself from falling to the ground.

“Where was he during the last check in and when was it?” he asked tremulously, fearing the answer.

“The last checkin occurred the night before last, Majesty. They were nearing the outskirts of Leide and Cavaugh.”

Regis scrambled for his phone, dialling Cid’s number. He hadn’t talked to the man in years, not since the Argument, but Cid had a granddaughter around Noctis’ age, surely he would be willing to help.

“Hammerhead Garage, Cid Sophiar speaking,” the other man’s voice was gruff, even over the tinny sound of the phone speakers.

“Cid? It’s me Regis, wait don’t hang up, please!”

“And give me one good reason why I shouldn’t,” he could hear the scowl in Cid’s voice.

“Noctis has gone missing. He was last seen in Leide, closer to Cavaugh. Have you had any word from them?”

Cid sighed grumpily, “the hunters found three bodies with your glaive insignia in the Fayemoor Haven. There was some missing camping gear and a blood trail leading away from it towards Hammerhead. But it dried up. I’ve hand the hunters round here keep a lookout, but no-one’s found anything yet.”

“I’m coming out to Hammerhead. I’ll be there soon.”

“Reggie if you come out now it’ll be too close to dark to-”

Click. Regis had already hung up and was opening the car door, “Ventus, you take care of Ravus and Luna, make sure they settle in properly. If I can’t find Noctis in 48 hours I’ll leave it to the guard. Mobilise them.”

And then Regis was speeding out of the Citadel, without waiting for an answer. He wouldn’t have been able to hear it regardless, not over the sound of his heart pounding.

***************************

Cid was waiting for him when he rolled up into Hammerhead.

“Get out you old fool, let me drive,” was all the greeting he was given but considering the terms they had parted on so many years ago Regis wasn’t about to complain.

He might have tried to object, to tell Cid to just get in the passenger seat and let them get going, but Regis could see his hands shaking on the wheel, he had been flooring the accelerator since he had left the citadel in a terrifying display of reckless driving and the pain in his chest was getting sharper. So he got out and moved to the passengers seat without a word of protest.

The drive was a silent one, Cid focused wholly on the road in front of them and Regis was staring down at the hands clutching at his trousers trying to remember how to breath as he tried desperately not to remember the statistics regarding missing persons, search and rescue operations and the fact that no-one survived in the wilderness of Leide without rations for very long. At the height of summer it was estimated that people became dehydrated within forty eight hours of going missing and were dead before the next twenty four were over.

“Goddamnit Reggie, breathe. We’ll find the boy, he’ll be fine. I promise.”

“Gods I hope so,” he answered, bleakly.

He was so distracted he almost missed what Cid muttered under his breathe, “Astrals, I’d forgotten how damn dramatic you are.”

Regis blinked, turning to face his old friend, surprised when the laughter bubbled up out of his throat. It was good to have Cid with him again, if there was one person who wouldn’t take shit from anyone it was Cid.

After his almost hysterical laughter had petered out he smiled wistfully, “It’s good to see you again, Cid.”

He leant back against the headrest and felt the wind blow across his face, able to breathe just a little bit easier.

They reached Fayemoor quickly and Regis was out the door and looking for the blood trail Cid had told him was there before the man had turned the car off.

“Honestly Reggie, when we get back I’m giving the old girl a service, you’ve been running her ragged and you haven’t been taking care of her at all.”

Regis ignored him completely, “what did the hunters find here?”

Cid sighed, “three glaives dead, some missing shit and a trail of blood leading towards Hammerhead.”

“And the long version?”

“What are you, a detective now?” the mechanic snarked under his breath, “two of the glaives were killed from behind, stabbed in the back, the only woman and a big man, broad shoulders, dark reddy brown hair, small eyes.”

“Acnae and Drautos,” Regis confirmed.

“The last body looked like it had been mauled by a monster. Had bite marks in the shoulder, side and leg, but he only died when the beast finally got a shot in at it’s throat. Tore the whole thing out, squinty eyed bugger made a mess everywhere.”

Regis’ mind ran, “there wasn’t any sign of a heavyset man with long braids, round face, built like a garula?”

Cid made a thoughtful face before slowly shaking his head in a negative, “no and none of the hunters seen any Galahdian types come through on their own Reggie. And everyone knows when one of those tough bastards come through, the hunters start turning tricks to try and get em to help out.”

“So most likely story is that Libertus stumbles away from the battle towards Hammerhead, bleeding openly and probably carrying Noctis,” he theorised crouching down above the dried out blood trail.

“You sure it wasn’t Noctis?”

Regis nodded, “there’s no way. The ring isn’t screaming at me about chosen blood being spilt. So I’m pretty sure it’s not Noctis’ blood at least.”

Cid began walking away in the direction of the trail, beckoning Regis to follow. The sun was setting and if he had any say he would have suggested the get in the car and get back to Hammerhead, but when Regis was like this he was unmovable. They would be out here all night if necessary. 

“So he then starts going out this way and for a long time he just gets closer and closer to Hammerhead, moving in a straight line. But a mile or two out, the trail just disappears.”

Regis paused thoughtfully, “we have no other leads, we follow the trail.”

“Reggie, the sun is setting, we should just camp here for the night.”

The King glanced at his watch and looked at his friend with dull eyes, “I promised to return to the front within forty-eight hours of my leaving the citadel. I now have less than forty. I’m following the trail, I refuse to waste time.”

Regis turned and left the safety of the haven away into the wilderness, eyes glued to the only lead he had to finding his son as Cid sighed to himself and shook his head. After a moment of indecision the mechanic followed behind, he knew it had been a long shot, getting Regis to take a rest, no matter how much he needed it, but at least he had tried.

Regis followed the track doggedly, but as Cid had told him it vanished after a few miles, cut off unexpectedly. He scanned the horizon for any possible clues as to where they might have gone from here but all he could see was blue smoke rising up from a haven and what could possibly be the lights of Hammerhead far in the distance.

Then he was distracted by the sound of a daemon bubbling to life and glanced around as Cid cursed. Two iron giants and three bombs appeared to his left and there were probably more to come. They were far enough from them that they could avoid the daemons and get to the haven ahead if they ran. The problem was that Regis couldn’t run that far, but in this case fighting would be worse on him.

“Cid! Run!”

The older man gave him a grim nod and began running over taking him after only a few hundred feet. The giants had seen them, and were giving chase. Regis felt his knee begin to buckle as he ran and grimaced, he found it horribly unfair that his friends were all older than him and were still in better shape. What was the point of having magic if you were too much of a wreck to use it properly.

The daemons were gaining on him and Cid was starting to slow down, looking over his shoulder. So Regis summoned a sword and threw it, pulling painfully on already drained reserves of magic, appearing a few steps ahead of his friend.

“Don’t slow down.”

“Then don’t fall behind,” the older man snarled. With a push he propelled a stumbling Regis onto the hard, grey rock of the haven and turned to block the blow of the iron giant behind him with is spear. He held the spear aloft and prayed it would hold and from the corner of his eyes he could see Regis on his stomach arm outstretched, leaning over the rock, furiously trying to collect the necessary ice element to cast a spell.

The moment of distraction cost him as an arm smashed into him throwing him back next to Regis, almost onto the plateau proper, and Cid decided to abandon the fight, clutching at the back of his friend’s suit jacket and pulling him along as they scrambled backwards to safety.

“You alright?” the mechanic gasped sitting up, trying to catch his breath, looking down at his friend who just laid their panting. Instead of an answer he heard a low growl coming from behind causing the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. The blood in his veins had turned to ice and he turned slowly to see an enormous sandy coloured wolf snarling at him.

“Whoa, we mean no harm,” he put his arms up in surrender, but resisted the urge to back away, still vaguely conscious of the daemons which were milling around the haven, grumbling about their lost prey.

Regis groaned and dragged himself up into something that could pass for sitting and spied a small black bundle he would recognise anywhere clutching to the fur of the wolf’s back.

“Noctis?” he called hoarsely.

A pale face shot up above the head of the snarling wolf and called out, “Dad?”

“Oh Gods, Noctis,” Regis almost sobbed, stumbling to his feet, hair and crown askew, royal raiment streaked with dust. Cid stared bewildered as his friend staggered fearlessly and without hesitation towards the wolf, which was still growling almost inaudibly and looked ready to tear into them at any moment.

Noctis reached out with one arm and his father carefully gathered him up into a tight hug.

“There was no check in last night, we found the bodies, Shiva, I was so scared I would never see you again,” the man babbled as he sunk to the ground, rocking his child, “you’re never leaving Insomnia again.”

“Am I the only one who can still see the giant bloody wolf in front of us?” Cid burst out.

Noctis raised his head out from the crook of his father’s neck and protested, “Libertus won’t hurt us.”

And then more quietly, “he got hurt trying to save me.”

Regis blinked wearily, but turned to his old friend, “Cid.”

The mechanic sighed but he rolled the drink he had been saving over Regis. The King presented the drink to his son, “can you make an elixir out of this?”

Noctis looked up with wide eyes, “me?”

“He risked his life to protect you Noct, you should help if you can,” Regis explained gently. Cid tried not to snort, more like Regis was too damned tired to do it himself.

“I’ve been making potions out of the water we had,” Noctis admitted grudgingly, “but it hasn’t been working very well.”

“That’s good Noct, you did well. Let me help here. Hold it in your hands like this, yes good, now focus your magic. You need more than you used to make the potions,” he directed tenderly.

The young prince frowned, trying to concentrate his magic properly. He huffed and pouted up at his father, “I can’t make it all fit in here, it’s too small.”

“Alright then, let me see what I can do. Try again.”

Noctis’ face screwed up once more in concentration and as Noctis poured his considerable power into the can Regis used his skill to weave a web around his son’s hands, catching escaping power and forcing it inwards, helping Noctis condense it until the elixir finally formed.

“We did it!” Noctis cheered and Libertus who had turned back into his human form when they hadn’t been looking was leaned over Noctis’ shoulder watching the process.

“How did you do that?” the glaive asked, dumbfounded.

Noctis looked up clueless, “what does he mean, Dad?”

Regis smiled a little bashfully, “most magic users can’t direct the flow of someone else’s magic, it takes a lot of control, more control than the person who’s magic you’re trying to affect has. But you haven’t had much practice yet, so it wasn’t very difficult to make your magic go where I wanted it to go,” the smile turned playful and he bopped his son on the nose, “now how about you let Libertus drink his elixir, he looks like he needs a rest.”

Noctis’ expression turned from an annoyed crosseyed to cheerfulness, an expression Regis hadn’t seen nearly enough on his child recently.

“Here you go Libertus!” the young prince smiled and poured the drink down his saviour’s throat, it had been obvious that this had happened several times over the past day or so. The glaive’s wounds scabbed over and he looked refreshed.

“Are you feeling better?”

“Yeah kid, that helped a lot, thanks.”

Noctis nodded sleepily and curled up against his father, making a pillow of his stomach.

“It’s alright Noct,” Regis said softly, “you go to sleep. It’s far past time for you to go to bed.”

“Now all that’s left is to find out what the hell happened,” Cid added.

“I was going to leave that for the morning,” Regis glared.

“Nah,” Libertus shook his head, “when I fall asleep I’ll probably spend a good day passed out. I’ll give my report now.”

Regis sighed, but adopted his kingly mien and nodded, so Libertus began.

“I didn’t see who killed Acnae. Drautos had sent me out to get firewood and when I came back Acnae was dead, Lazarus wasn’t anywhere to be seen and Drautos had a bloody dagger and was stalking the kid down as he tried to drag him away. I warped into the back of Drautos’ neck and started getting some stuff ready to take off, I had no idea who to trust, but just as I was picking up the kid, Lazarus comes up yelling for the world to hear about compensation from Nifleheim and pinning the kid’s murder on me. I objected to that and we fought. I won.

Then I took the kid and got the hell out of dodge, I was in no shape to protect the kid, he couldn’t walk, so all we could do was to try and get closer to Insomnia. We got here some time before dawn, then I pretty much collapsed and Noct’s spend the day trying to heal me up.”

Regis just nodded silently, trying not to think about how disastrous this was and even more about how much of a disaster it could have been.

After a short silence Cid asked, “wasn’t Drautos the name of the one Clarus was trying to convince you to put in charge of the glaive?”

Regis looked up, bewildered, “how the hell do you know that?”

The mechanic shrugged, “Clarus and Cor call me when they want to bitch about you. Clarus called last month and started bitching about how you wanted to put some kid in charge of the glaive. An Ulric, I know you owe his dad but honestly, he’s twenty, Reggie.”

“Thanks Cid,” Regis said dryly, “but it’s irrelevant. Nyx is already the captain.”

Libertus looked up in shock, “really?”

Regis nodded shortly, “and before you go off at me it had nothing to do with any debts I may or may not have owed his father. Were none of you paying attention when we were in Galahd?”

Cid shrugged, “that was your job.”

“Yes, it was, so trust me to do it.”

“Alright, alright, I get it. The King is always right,” the mechanic teased.

Libertus shrugged, “I don’t know about always, but he’s definitely right this time. I mean, the Shield wanted to trust the person who tried to kill the kid a few days ago.”

“Treasonous, and Clarus and the Council wanted to put him in charge. I’m going to hold this over their heads for a long time,” Regis smiled.

“Forget that Reggie, I remember what Galahdians do to child killers, you would have had a lynch mob on your hands if word ever got out, and you would have been lucky if it ended with Drautos.”

Regis bared his teeth, “I would have been right there with them.”

Libertus looked at the two older men, evaluating the new information he had been given, “I’m going to bed. I’m knackered.”

Cid and Regis both nodded, saying that they would be doing the same.

Regis curled up around his son, feeling truly content for the first time since the disaster at Fenestala Manor.


	9. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a little something to round things off.

When the maid knocked on her door, saying that the Regalia was at the gates of the citadel Noctis dozing lightly in the back seat, Lunafrey pushed right past her, not even bothering to put on some shoes.

“Ravus!” she yelled, banging on his door.

“What?” he scowled yanking it open.

“King Regis has returned, and Noctis is with him, come on, come quickly!” she grabbed his hand and began dragging him along behind her as she ran towards the elevator. She jabbed at the button madly, hair wild around her head, the ferocious gleam of her eyes shining through it and Ravus found he couldn’t feel anything other than relief. Relief that his sister’s heart was safe, that she wouldn’t loose her friend so soon after she had met him, even if he considered Noctis to be a weak, mewling, kitten of a boy.

He allowed himself to be dragged into the elevator at her behest and then to the courtyard, just in time to see the Regalia park itself just in front of the stairs. Luna’s bare feet slapped against the marble tiles as she almost collided with the car door, pulling it open and collected Noctis in an almost suffocating embrace.

“Luna!” Noctis exclaimed, “I’m so glad you’re alright!”

“I’m glad you’re safe too Noctis. We were all so worried.”

She leaned back, to get a good look at the younger boy’s face, “we heard you had gone missing.”

“It’s fine,” Noctis smiled cheerfully, “Dad found me.”

**************************

(Eight Years Later)

Noctis and Luna were lying on the floor, feet in the air, munching on a bag of chips, books in front of them as they were supposed to be doing their homework, as Luna was still in the same class as Noctis.

This was because when she had asked King Regis to put her in the same class as Noctis for school, she had been gently refused. While she could go to the same school as Noctis, she would have to be taught the classes that was expected of her, with people of the same age as her, she had been told. Luna had smiled prettily, said she understood and then promptly failed her classes for four years, until Noctis was in the same year as her.

The adults had all be bewildered by her behaviour, but when Regis had smiled and let her get away with it they had had no choice but to let her choose her own path, even if Ignis had looked utterly horrified every time he crossed her path to this day. To his credit, he was getting better about hiding it these days, or he might just have finally been getting over it.

When the school administrators had then tried to put her and Noctis in seperate classes she had paid them a visit and reminded then what she had done to ensure she would be in the same year as her socially awkward friend and did they really want to know what she would do to ensure she was in the same class as him this year?

They had very quickly learned to see things her way.

So here they were, lounging around in their apartment, Prompto was due to come over in a few hours and Luna had been determined that they would do some study in that time. For all that she had failed grade seven four times, she had been a model student for the rest of her career as a student. Unfortunately, Noctis was proving to be highly distractible today.

“You can’t seriously think that Nyx is cute!”

“I don’t think he’s cute, I think he’s handsome, there’s a difference.”

Her friend, adopted brother really, looked at her in disbelief, “you have a crush on someone who is eight years older than you. And he’s the captain of the glaive. That’s just weird Luna.”

“Oh really, then who would you consider cute then?” she snapped.

Noctis blushed and looked away.

“Come on. Who?” Luna pressed, rocking her legs back and forth.

“Ignis,” Noctis muttered almost inaudibly.

“Ignis?” Luna almost shrieked in disbelief, “he’s like … your mother! That’s way weirder than my crush on Nyx!”

“Na-ah,” Noctis shot back hotly, “he’s cute, he’s a great cook, he cleans, he takes good care of me, he’s always up for a cuddle and he likes watching the stars with me.”

Luna narrowed her eyes and screamed down the hall, “Ravus!”

“What?” came the cranky reply, as he older brother shuffled into the room.

“Who’s cuter, Nyx or Ignis?”

“That’s what you call me out here for?” he hissed, “I was working on an assignment!”

Noctis snorted, “you were talking to your girlfriend.”

“Exactly, I’m into women, what makes you think I would be a decent judge?”

The younger two both rolled their eyes, “objectively. Who’s cuter?”

Ravus sighed, leant against the doorway and said, “you’ve both got horrible taste. It’s obvious isn’t it, Prompto is the cutest.”


End file.
